Germany’s Coalition Collapses, Paving Way for New Elections

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the chancellory in Berlin on Nov. 4, 2024. Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo

Germany’s ruling coalition has collapsed paving the way for new elections.

After sacking Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) on Nov. 7, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to head a minority government with his Social Democrats and the Greens, the second-largest party.

Scholz’s three-way alliance comprising the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the FDP, faced increasing pressure as it struggled over disputes about economic priorities.

With a legislative majority, Scholz will try to govern through a minority government, relying on ad-hoc parliamentary majorities.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday that he was prepared to dissolve parliament and clear the way for new elections.

Second Year of Contraction

Europe’s largest economy is facing its second year of contraction, grappling with the end of affordable Russian gas and historic Volkswagen factory closures as it struggles to compete with lower-cost Chinese electric vehicles.

On Nov 5,  the free-market-inspired FDP, a junior coalition partner, made in its paper a suggestion to delay by five years the target date for some net-zero goals.

However, Greens co-leader Omid Nouripour rejected any softening of climate goals.

On Wednesday, speaking after Scholz, Lindner said the chancellor had tried to strong-arm him into breaking a constitutionally enshrined spending limit known as the debt brake.

“Olaf Scholz refuses to recognise that our country needs a new economic model,” Lindner told reporters. “Olaf Scholz has showed he doesn’t have the strength to give his country a new boost.”

Scholz said Lindner was focused on the short-term survival of his own party.

“Especially today, one day after such an important event as the U.S. elections, this kind of selfishness is utterly incomprehensible,” he said.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens said the coalition could not agree on how to plug a funding gap in the budget for next year.

“I want to say on our behalf that tonight feels wrong and doesn’t feel right. It’s almost tragic on a day like today, when Germany needs to show unity and capacity for action in Europe,” said Habeck.

Opposition

Meanwhile, the opposition conservatives CDU currently lead with 36 percent in national polls, followed by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 16 percent.

However, Scholz has urged other parties to block the AfD from governing.

Alice Weidel (C) and Tino Chrupalla (C right), both AfD federal chairmen, cheer at the AfD party headquarters during the forecast for the European elections, in Berlin on June 9, 2024. Joerg Carstensen/dpa via AP

Richard Schenk, a research fellow at the think tank MCC Brussels, told The Epoch Times that snap elections are complicated in Germany and cannot be called immediately.

Schenk said that it’s possible that the CDU, FDP, and AfD could hold a minority in Parliament together.

However, he said that Conservatives are very afraid of this minority government situation, as the AfD is going to bring forward proposals for economic policy that are “out of the CDU and FDP playbook.”

“Then they (CDU) would either have to maintain this firewall, this cordon sanitaire, and basically refuse their own proposals, or they would have to accept the AfD proposals,” he added.

“There is a very interesting constitutional provision in the German constitution, exactly for this case, which would allow to basically for the government, to bypass the parliament and only pass legislation with the upper chamber, the Federal Council.

“But nobody ever has triggered this ‘nuclear option.’”

AfD

In September, in the state of Brandenburg, Scholz’s SPD narrowly defeated the AfD, receiving 30.9 percent of the vote compared to the AfD’s 29.2 percent.

Although the AfD did not replicate its historic win in neighboring Thuringia, the party’s anti-immigration stance, skepticism of net-zero policies, and opposition to the Russia–Ukraine war continue to resonate with a significant portion of voters.

AfD leaders have called for strict border controls and a reduction in illegal immigrants. The party has also pushed for preserving what it sees as traditional German culture and says that “Islam does not belong to Germany.”

The policies also include opposition to climate action agendas and critiques of European Union integration.

Reuters contributed to this report.