German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats, according to a government spokesman who spoke to dpa on Wednesday evening. The move comes as Germany's coalition government faces the risk of collapsing.
The dismissal comes after days of crisis talks among Scholz's coalition of Social Democrats, the pro-business FDP and the Greens of Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
Scholz said he sacked rebellious Finance Minister Christian Lindner because there was no longer any "basis of trust," making it impossible to work together.
"He has broken my trust too often... Serious government work is not possible under such circumstances," Scholz told a press conference.
The main sticking point is how to plug a huge hole in the 2025 budget, with the parties at odds over how to address Germany's ailing economy. The opposition, meanwhile, is calling on the coalition to break apart and pave the way for early elections.
Ahead of Scholz's dismissal, Lindner had suggested that Scholz pave the way for snap parliamentary elections since the parties could not see eye to eye on economic and financial policy issues, dpa learned from participants in the top-level coalition talks.
Germany is next due to hold elections in September 2025 but Scholz said he would call a confidence vote on Jan. 15, which could pave the way for a snap federal election in March.
A meeting of the coalition committee later Wednesday will focus on how the billion-euro hole in the 2025 budget can be plugged and how the German economy can be put back on track.
However, they disagree fundamentally over how to kickstart the economy again, and after weeks of government infighting many Germans wonder if the current government will actually survive the coming 11 months before the next election is due.
Uncoordinated summit meetings and differing proposals by the leaders have fueled the conflict among the coalition partners.
If the leaders fail to reach an agreement later on Wednesday, the government could be on the brink of collapse.
Scholz appealed to all coalition partners to find a solution and prioritize the country over different party convictions.
"As far as the situation of the government's further work is concerned, it is about feeling committed to the country, not about ideology," he said Tuesday in Berlin. "And it is clear that we can. In this respect, the question is not whether it can be done at all, but whether it is possible, and everyone has to work on that now."
The Free Democrats have pushed for changes in the country's economic policy, some of which Lindner expressed in an 18-page paper last week that was leaked to the media.
The party categorically rejects tax increases or changes to Germany's strict self-imposed limits on running up debt, and say it's time to save money - for example, on benefits for the long-term unemployed.
Politicians on the left want to see massive state investment and reject talk of cutting welfare programs and many other ideas Lindner proposed in his paper last week.
Germany's economy is expected to shrink in 2024 for the second year in a row, or at best stagnate, battered by external shocks and home-grown problems including red tape and a shortage of skilled labor.
