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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Kate Connolly in Berlin

Why has Germany’s government collapsed and what happens next?

Olaf Scholz Christian Lindner Germany FDP SPD Friedrich Merz Greens Economy Europe AFD
Olaf Scholz looks towards the camera as he walks. A woman is beside him in the background
Olaf Scholz arrives at Bellevue Palace, the president’s official residence, in Berlin on Thursday. Photograph: Sebastian Gollnow/AP

Germany’s three-way coalition, the “traffic light” alliance of centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and free-market liberal Free Democratic party (FDP), has collapsed after three years, following a lengthy dispute over how to stop a multibillion-euro hole in next year’s budget, plunging Europe’s largest economy into a period of considerable uncertainty.

What just happened in Berlin?

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