Olaf Scholz chancellor of Germany, fired the liberal Christian Lindner, already former Minister of Finance, this Wednesday due to differences in the internal crisis of coalition government. Scholz announced, after dismissing Lindner, that he would request a vote of confidence before the German Parliament on January 15. The German government is formed by a coalition between the social democratic party of Scholz, the Liberal Party (FDP) by Lindner and The Greens.
“I just asked the president (Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also a social democrat) to relieve the Minister of Finance of his duties. “I am obliged to take this step to avoid damage to our country,” Scholz said in a press statement on Wednesday. The German Chancellor also indicated that don’t trust in Lindner, the leader of the Liberal Party, and indicated that “he only cares about the survival of his own party”. The leader of the Executive assured that Lindner had used “petty partisan political tactics.” Scholz accuses the liberal of irresponsibility and insists that he does not want to “continue to subject the country to this type of behavior.”
Scholz assured that he would undergo a motion of confidence before the Bundestag on January 15 to try to obtain the support of Parliament and avoid calling early elections. If the vote of confidence is lost, the chancellor will have to dissolve Parliament and bring forward the elections. Scholz thus attempts to put pressure on the opposition parties, particularly on the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), to gain their support and avoid elections that could benefit the Alternative for Germany, a growing far-right party.
Lindner had proposed holding the elections in early 2025 due to existing differences between the partners of the coalition government, particularly in economic matters. The 1 billion euro hole in the German budget and the economic crisis, the response to which has raised doubts within the alliance, are some of the reasons for the breakup. The intention of the Social Democrats to increase the deficit to finance, among other things, Ukraine in their defense against the invasion of Russia.
In response, Lindner, already former minister of Finance, accused Scholz of causing a “calculated” breakup of the fraying coalition. “Your carefully prepared statement this evening demonstrates that Olaf Scholz “I was no longer seeking to reach a viable agreement for everyone, but rather a calculated breakup of this coalition,” underlined the liberal during a press conference after his dismissal.
Lindner pointed out to his former government partners for not having accepted their proposals to try to respond to the crisis caused by the 1,000 million euro hole in the budgets and the economic crisis. “Their counterproposals are weak, unambitious and do nothing to overcome our country’s fundamental weakness in growth so that we can maintain our prosperity, our social security and our environmental responsibility,” the liberal said. Lindner He also assured that Scholz had finally asked him to suspend the debt ceiling enshrined in the Constitution. “I cannot agree with this,” said the former finance minister.
