Germany’s governing coalition has collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired a key minister and said he would call a vote of confidence in his government early next year.
The chancellor said he had no trust in Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who heads the pro-business Free Democrats and has been part of the coalition with Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens.
The so-called “traffic-light” coalition has governed Germany since 2021.
The coalition collapse means Scholz’s government no longer has a majority in parliament.
The confidence vote could lead to early elections by March, although the opposition says a confidence vote should come next week, not next year.
Internal tensions had been bubbling for weeks before exploding into the open on Wednesday night. It was triggered by a row over the 2025 budget, with Germany now facing its second year without economic growth.
“This is not a good day for Germany and not a good day for Europe,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the Greens.
Olaf Scholz said his former finance minister had “betrayed my confidence” and had put the interests of his party base over those of the country.
He added that Germany needed to show it could be relied upon by other countries, particularly following Trump’s election success in the US.
Lindner, who leads the Free Democrats or FDP, accused Scholz of “leading Germany into a phase of uncertainty”. He had refused Scholz’s demand to loosen the spending limit known as a “debt brake” that requires German governments to balance the budget.
While two of his party colleagues also resigned from their cabinet posts, a third, Volker Wissing, said he had made a personal decision to stay on as transport minister and resign from his party.
The head of the conservative Christian Democrats, who are well ahead in opinion polls, said there was no time to wait. “We simply cannot afford to have a government without a majority in Germany for several months,” said Friedrich Merz.
The so-called traffic-light coalition was formed after Scholz’s Social Democrats narrowly defeated the conservatives in federal elections in September 2021.
