German Finance Minister Christian Lindner proposes holding early elections to the country’s parliament in early 2025.
According to BILD, Chancellor Olaf Scholz opposes new elections.
In Germany, there is a crisis in the coalition government consisting of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
The disagreements cover key issues such as climate policy, budget spending and military reforms. The SPD and Greens are pushing for stronger climate action, while the VDP has raised concerns about rising costs and possible pressure on business. Mutual contradictions threaten the stability of the coalition and cause disputes that make it difficult to make important decisions in parliament.
The government coalition has been holding emergency meetings in recent days amid the growing crisis. The central problem is economic strategy. Finance Minister Christian Lindner is calling for an “economic turnaround” with tax cuts and deregulation to support the now stagnant economy. However, the coalition partners – the SPD and the Greens – do not agree with a number of proposals, especially to reduce social spending. These negotiations are accompanied by the preparation of the 2025 budget, which intensifies the conflict.
Trump’s victory is being portrayed by the left-wing coalition parties – the SPD and the Greens – as a reason to keep the coalition intact.
“I hope everyone involved will pull together and not throw Europe’s biggest and most powerful country into chaos after the US has already had so many problems,” Anton Hofreiter, a senior Green politician, said on the Berlin Playbook podcast.
The fate of the government, however, depends largely on the VDP, the smallest party in the coalition. Now the FDP has only 4% of Germans’ trust. That is below the threshold needed to enter the German parliament in the next federal elections scheduled for September, and its leaders are mulling breaking up the coalition to save their political future. The VDP did not enter the state parliaments after elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg.
Lindner recently wrote a leaked policy document last week calling for tax cuts and a rollback of climate policies to boost economic growth – both positions at odds with the party of his coalition partners. FDP leaders are already saying that the US elections should not decide coalition discussions.
If we continue like this without decisive measures in the economy and other areas, there will be no need for a government in which the VDP is involved,” said Michael Link, a VDP MP and the government’s transatlantic coordinator, in Berlin. “The idea that just because Trump is elected, we will remain silent and get together, but, in fact, we will just continue like this, sorry, this is not a solution, it will make everything worse.
The centerpiece of the talks is parliament’s adoption of the 2025 budget, which needs to fill a deficit of at least 2.4 billion euros, and potentially much more, as well as agreement on measures to revive the country’s ailing economy.
Trump’s victory is expected to put even more pressure on Europe’s largest economy. The German Economic Institute (IW) estimates that a new trade war could cost Germany 180 billion euros over Trump’s four years in office.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.