Crisis in the traffic light coalition: Scholz dismisses Lindner
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) dismisses Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). That’s what she found out South German newspaper and was confirmed a little later by government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. This means that the traffic light coalition is over, and the other FDP ministers are also resigning. As a next step, Scholz is planning to ask the German Bundestag for a vote of confidence on January 15th – this would probably be lost, then the Federal President would have to decide whether the Bundestag should be dissolved and new elections should be scheduled. A statement from Scholz is scheduled for 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday.
Formally, Scholz has to suggest to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier that Lindner be dismissed from his position as Federal Minister of Finance. Lindner had previously proposed new elections at the beginning of next year because of the dispute over the federal budget and the implementation of his proposals for an “economic turnaround”.
After days of meetings between Scholz, Lindner and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), the coalition committee met on Wednesday at 6 p.m. with the party and parliamentary group leaders in the Chancellery to discuss whether there was a common solution. One option was also to partially suspend the debt brake in order to create more space for additional investments – which the FDP strictly rejects – due to the situation, which has now become even more aggravated by the election of Donald Trump as US President.
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