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of Germany The ruling coalition collapsed Following disagreements over the country’s weak economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed the finance minister.

The dismissal of Christian Lindner led the Free Democratic Party (FDP) to withdraw from its coalition with Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), leaving Scholz in a minority government with the Green Party.

Scholz said he would now call a vote of confidence for January 15, which could allow elections to be held by the end of March next year if he loses, six months before elections scheduled for September 2025.

Germany now faces turmoil in a time of wider uncertainty. Political crisis triggered a few hours after announcement former US President Donald Trump The result of this election, which will lead to a second term, could bring further trouble to the German economy and threaten Europe’s united front on fundamental issues. Here’s what we know.

Political stability is the norm for Germany, where power moves largely between the SPD and conservative rival CDU. of the country Previous leader Angela Merkel He held power for 16 years, maintaining a steady presence on the European stage as others came and went. He had a famously testy relationship with Trump.

The last early election in Germany was held in 2005. These elections were called by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who later lost to Merkel.

Merkel retires from her post as chancellor of Germany in 2021.

The centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has stepped in to fill the void left by it when it emerged as the largest party in the German parliament (Bundestag) in the 2021 federal elections. Following the powerful and ever-popular Merkel was always going to be fraught with difficulties.

The SPD formed a government with the FDP and the Greens, who had been in power since December of the same year as a “traffic light” coalition, referring to their different party colours.

Bringing together three ideologically distinct parties into a single coalition did not always produce a comfortable alliance, and the SPD-led coalition faced difficulties from the beginning.

The alliance brought together the FDP, a business-oriented party that advocates free markets and a fiscally conservative approach, and the SPD and the Greens, two left-wing parties that see a need for government spending on social and environmental policies.

The coalition disagreed on how to stimulate Germany’s economy. It is also under pressure from the far-right and, more recently, the development of far-left forces.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has made significant gains in recent years, becoming the first far-right party to win a state election since the Nazi era in September, when it emerged as the strongest party in the eastern state of Thuringia.

In efforts to counter the AfD, Scholz’s government has been encouraged to take action on immigration by announcing new security measures aimed at speeding up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers and bolstering border controls.

Months of tension over Germany’s budget policy and economic direction boiled over on Wednesday. In fact, Scholz’s investment demands clashed with Lindner’s more cautious approach to government borrowing.

Scholz stated that he fired Lindner for obstructing his economic plans, telling reporters: “Lindner was not willing to implement any of our proposals” and therefore “there is no basis of trust for any future cooperation.”

Lindner meanwhile accused Scholz of wanting to pause the “debt brake”, a constitutional clause that prevents the government from overborrowing and accumulating debt; Lindner said he wasn’t willing to do that.

The rhetoric from Scholz and Lindner was unusually pointed. The chancellor told reporters on Wednesday night that Lindners’ “egoism is completely incomprehensible”.

The thorny issue of how to fill next year’s budget, which has a deficit of billions of euros, still looms over the government. The fact that the FDP is no longer around makes the transition even more complicated.

Carsten Brzeski, a senior economist at Dutch bank ING, cited “enduring tensions” within the German government and “an open disagreement on how to pull the German economy out of the current recession and structural weakness” as reasons. collapse.

Germany’s economy is the largest in Europe, decreased last year For the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the past five years, it grew by just 0.2%, compared with 4.6% growth in the 20 countries that use the euro, 4.1% in France and 5.5% in Italy.

There are many reasons for Germany’s economic stagnation. The country’s energy-intensive businesses are suffering the lingering impact of the energy crisis caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Germany’s problems are also structural; These range from high labor costs, rapidly aging population and bureaucratic procedures to outdated physical and digital infrastructure.

It faces competition from China in the production of some of its main export products, which is causing great damage to Germany’s famous auto industry. Volkswagen, Germany’s largest manufacturer, is considering closing its factories in its own country for the first time in its 87-year history.

Scholz is expected to head a minority government. It would have to rely on the assembled majority of parliament to pass the law, pending a confidence vote in January.

In the short term, he will likely appeal to Merz and the CDU, Germany’s most popular party, to pass the law.

However, CDU leader Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition party, who put pressure on Scholz, said that this period was too long and demanded that the vote of confidence be held “by the beginning of next week at the latest”. at the beginning of next year.

The collapse of the ruling coalition and political uncertainty could serve to increase support for the far right as people increasingly lose trust in mainstream parties. Party leader Alice Weidel had already hailed the collapse of the coalition as a “salvation” for Germany.

“The end of the traffic lights coalition is salvation for our country. “The end of the self-proclaimed ‘progressive coalition’ that had brought Germany to the brink of economic ruin was long overdue,” Weidel wrote of X.