The liberals’ “letter of divorce”
If the disagreement within the government is nothing new, it gained in intensity last week, with the publication of an 18-page paper by the liberal minister (FDP) Christian Lindner aimed at restoring the German economy. This is indeed going to the worst. Germany is expected to record a second year in a row of recession, is seeing unemployment increase and is drowning in bad industrial news, between Volkswagen’s restructuring plans and the freezing of industrial megaprojects such as Intel’s establishment in Magdeburg. Christian Lindner therefore proposes a series of measures based on three principles: lower taxes, a new environmental policy and more incentives to work. This includes, for example, a postponement of the climate neutrality objectives from 2045 to 2050, the abolition of the climate fund and the suspension of the law on collective agreements…
If these measures were well received by representatives of economic circles, this “economic turning point” diametrically opposes the policy pursued for three years by the government and the positions of the two other partners, environmentalists and social democrats. “This document is similar to a divorce letter”wrote the Berlin daily this weekend Daily Mirror. “There are almost no points on which an agreement between the members of the coalition would be possible. To put it politely, it is a good political stink ball for everyone”judges this newspaper.
With this paper, Christian Lindner is trying to get the government to undertake an (impossible) 180-degree turnaround in the country’s economic policy. Or, if it is not followed, to authorize an exit from the government, opening the way to early elections? Or is he simply embarking on an electoral campaign, eleven months before the legislative elections, gambling everything to convince his voters? Voting intentions are indeed desperate for the liberals of the FDP, credited with only 4% of the vote, and who could fail to enter the Bundestag.
Increasingly weakened, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz obtains a respite in a regional election against the far right
Scholz tries to save the furniture
It is in this ultra-tense context that Chancellor Scholz ordered a series of face-to-face meetings with Christian Lindner and Green Minister Robert Habeck on Sunday and until Wednesday to try to put an end to this cacophony. The stated goal is above all to pass the decisive test of the 2025 federal budget. The three coalition partners still need to find 2.5 billion euros by November 14 to fill the budget. Failure would mark the assured end of the government.
Early elections? Some on the right only hope for that, like the conservative daily The world who called Olaf Scholz on Sunday, “to end his coalition”. “This government has become a factor of insecurity. The three parties which govern together now speak more poorly of each other and of the common government than the opposition and political observers do”observes the newspaper. Desire or reality, the conservative right of the CDU/CSU, leading in voting intentions, is in any case already preparing to take the lead of the country… early or not.
