While the whole world was watching the US presidential election, Germany quietly fell into a political crisis, writes the British public media BBC, quoted by BTA in a review of what is happening in Berlin.
As a result of complex political disputes, the most powerful European economy has been left without a clear future perspective at a time when economic growth is stagnant and EU leaders are feeling uncertainty about the upcoming coming to power of the winner of the US elections, Donald Trump, the public media commented. Last Wednesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who is also the leader of one of the three parties in the ruling coalition. Two of Lindner's three party colleagues in the government immediately resigned, effectively ending the coalition.
The chancellor could ask for a vote of confidence in parliament to see if he still has enough parliamentary support, Deutsche Welle explains. However, after the coalition collapses, only members of his own Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the "Alliance 90/Greens" will vote in support of Scholz's government, meaning he will not be able to muster a majority. If the chancellor fails to secure a majority, he has the right to formally ask the president to dissolve parliament within 21 days. After the dissolution of parliament, new elections must be held within 60 days.
Scholz has planned his own timetable for his next moves, which he announced last Wednesday and said he intends to stick to. He does not want to submit a vote of confidence before January 15 and will continue to govern with a minority government made up of the SPD and the "Greens" until then. The two parties want to pass several more laws before the early elections, the German media reports. According to opinion polls, their support level is appallingly low and the ruling coalition recently officially became the most unpopular government in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.
No one can force the chancellor to submit a vote of confidence immediately, although the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, accused Scholz of using delaying tactics and "procrastination due to political insolvency".
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on the other hand, called for caution. "Many people in our country are worried about the uncertain political situation in our country, in Europe, in the world, even after the US elections," Steinmeier said in Berlin. "Now is not the time for tactics and skirmishes, but for reason and responsibility. I expect all responsible persons to rise to the challenge," he added.
Steinmeier was a minister in previous Social Democratic governments and held other political positions in the party for around 18 years before becoming president in 2017. His membership of the SPD has since been suspended. The 68-year-old president wants to make sure that he will not be suspected of bias and has stressed that he will monitor the further development of the political situation critically, Deutsche Welle reports.
Scholz fired his finance minister after months of disputes over the huge hole in Germany's budget, the Guardian newspaper notes. The chancellor wants to increase spending by taking on more debt, citing the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Lindner opposes this and instead insists on a series of spending and tax cuts, which the CDU and the Greens say are impossible to accept because they would torpedo much of the government's program. At stake are social security payments, emergency climate measures and support for Ukraine (Germany is the country's second-largest supporter after the United States).
Sholz has signaled that he still wants to see through his most important projects, such as stabilising the country's pension system. As head of a minority government, however, he will rely on the support of the conservative opposition, which may decide not to support him.
Whether Scholz got ahead of Lindner by sacking him before the finance minister himself resigned is up for debate, the British newspaper commented. Both men have made angry comments against each other, with Scholz accusing Lindner of being "petty" and "selfish" and not seeing the bigger picture - namely the huge geopolitical challenges facing Germany. Lindner has accused Scholz of "downplaying" the concerns of ordinary Germans.
The timing of the collapse of Germany's ruling coalition seems inopportune given the re-election of Donald Trump just a day earlier, which threatens to plunge Europe and Germany into an era of instability, but there is actually a chance that the crisis in Berlin could turn out to be good news, Foreign Policy believes. The coalition of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Free Democratic Party was the most dysfunctional, hesitant and internally divided German government in decades, the media outlet notes. The coalition members actively worked against each other on policies in the areas of the European Union, aid to Ukraine, China policy and economic reforms. With Trump back in the White House, Germany and Europe will no longer be able to afford such political paralysis in Berlin.
In the EU, Scholz's government is considered the most one-sided, introverted and uncooperative German leadership in a long time, Foreign Policy points out. Not only did Berlin unilaterally reimpose border controls in a panicked reaction to the surge in support for right-wing populists after a series of violent incidents involving migrants, but German government representatives in the EU have also increasingly refrained from expressing any position recently, as the three coalition parties lacked a unified thinking.
EU policy expert Dr. Tu Nguyen believes that the collapse of the German government was inevitable, notes Euronews. “In domestic politics, the collapse of the coalition was inevitable. The signs were already there in the previous weeks, and the differences and conflicts between the three coalition partners were too great to overcome,“ she says, adding that she believes the timing is inopportune, given that the EU and Germany need strong leadership.
Dr Nguyen still hopes that the political crisis will be temporary and will ease as soon as another government comes to power, although she says the EU must ensure that “there is a common European response to the US elections“.
One of the expert's biggest concerns is that leaders like Viktor Orbán and Giorgia Meloni could “push forward a vision of the European Union that might be more pro-Russian or less green, or even tougher on migration because they feel empowered by the US election results“. According to her, the risk in such a case would be that Europe could split even further: “Without a functioning government in Germany and against the backdrop of a significantly weakened French president and French government, there is simply a lack of leadership”, she fears.