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It’s shortly before 8:30 p.m. last Wednesday evening when the chancellor says the decisive words. Olaf Scholz turns to his finance minister, Christian Lindner.
Wednesday was a day of political upheaval. It began with liberal democracy being steamrolled in the United States, as voters handed Donald Trump a surprisingly one-sided victory, sending him back to the White House for a second term. And it ended with the collapse of the government in Berlin, the three-party coalition that spent much of the last three years bickering, despite showing a remarkable ability to find some sort of minimal compromise to keep going. Now, it’s over.
And Christian Lindner, born in Wuppertal in 1979 and grew up in Wermelskirchen, a major in the reserves, a failed entrepreneur who became the savior of the FDP, his party’s floor leader in parliament and then finance minister. Motto: Problems are just thorny opportunities. On Wednesday evening, immediately following the collapse of the coalition, Scholz said of Lindner:"Too often did Minister Lindner blockade progress outside of his portfolio. Too often did he engage in petty party tactics. Too often did he break my trust.”Foto: Annegret Hilse / REUTERS
In the paper, Lindner demands a complete economic turnaround. He argues for climate protection measures to be dialed back, welfare cuts, the scrapping of several planned laws, less regulation and the elimination of the"solidarity surcharge,” the extra tax paid in Germany to meet the costs associated with reunification. The paper reads like a premature campaign platform. Almost none of the demands listed in it could ever receive support from the SPD or the Greens.
After the meeting – if not before – Scholz has a suspicion: Lindner, he speculates, isn’t at all interested in preparing for new elections together, rather he wants to bring down the coalition. Soon. Rumors have already begun swirling in Lindner’s orbit that the FDP is preparing a special party convention and may even be engaged in talks with the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union , a center-right pairing known as the Union.
The atmosphere is tense, but no one raises their voice Only once do tempers verge on flaring. Lindner is holding forth about the welfare cuts he is demanding when Scholz accuses him wanting to"take something away from the poor.” Lindner sharply rejects the notion, saying the recipients at issue aren’t poor.With a bit of goodwill, the final gaps in the budget can now be closed.
But then, in November 2023, Germany’s Constitutional Court threw out elements of the federal budget. And everything changed. In the months that followed, all the coalition’s conflicts followed the same pattern: The SPD and Greens demanded more money, insisting that the debt brake be eased so as to boost investments, support Ukraine and plug budget gaps. And Lindner refused to budge. During this period, the debt brake became this coalition’s lightning rod.At 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Scholz, Lindner and Habeck again gather in the Chancellery, and this time Scholz comes armed with a proposal.
The meeting ends at around 11 a.m., by which time it has become clear that Donald Trump has won the election in the U.S. in a surprisingly lopsided vote – and that everything is about to change, especially on foreign policy. Is it not the duty of the coalition to stand up to the pressure, despite all the internal disagreements? Can the country still afford a collapse of government?
Even now, on Wednesday afternoon, Lindner refuses to soften his position: Neither politically nor legally, participants quote him as saying, can he agree to the emergency provision. And once again, he presents the alternative he already shared with Scholz during their Sunday evening dinner: Either a completely new approach – or a joint path to new elections.
Then, at around 8:30 p.m., the meeting of the Coalition Committee resumes. And shortly after that, Scholz says that he no longer wants Lindner in his cabinet. It is a sentence that seals the fate of his government. Lindner notices as well, and in a statement delivered just a few minutes later, he says several times that Scholz’s speech was clearly well-prepared. What he means is that the chancellor, who is presenting himself as a statesman, is actually a cool and calculating party tactician.
When Scholz walked into the SPD parliamentary chamber on Wednesday evening after the rupture, the parliamentarians gave him a standing ovation that lasted for several minutes. They had long yearned for the time when Scholz would open up on Lindner as he had just finished doing. One lawmaker reported afterwards that the internal party chat groups were more energetic than they had been for months.
Germany German Politics Olaf Scholz Social Democratic Party Christian Social Union Free Democratic Party Green Party German Economy
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