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.
