The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has sacked his finance minister Christian Lindner escalating a long conflict in the German government and ultimately causing the fragile coalition between Social Democrats, Greens, and the Free Democratic Party to collapse. For once, Scholz, often mocked as a robotic speaker without emotion, appeared to be angry ' even resentful. In a speech, Scholz blamed Lindner for the government's collapse, and portrayed his former finance minister as petty, uncompromising and untrustworthy. Linder's response was swift and equally bitter. He accused the chancellor of a lack of ambition and poor leadership. The vice-chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck, admitted that ministers had been consistently arguing since 2021. But he added that he felt that the government collapse was avoidable and unnecessary. Habeck is expected to run for chancellor, though he and his Green party are in the most difficult position of all coalition parties. They are in deep...
learn more
