German Chancellor Olaf Scholz fires Finance Minister Christian Lindner, leaving ruling coalition in disarray

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Wednesday he had dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner, possibly bringing an end to Germany’s ruling coalition after months of political wrangling.

The three-year-old union between Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and Lindner’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) has been on shaky ground for some time, with differing budget and economic policy positions causing tensions and clashes. It wasn’t immediately clear if Lindner’s departure would lead to the FDP exiting the coalition.

Speaking at a press conference late Wednesday, Scholz launched a tirade against Lindner, saying he was not concerned about serving for the common good and he was dismissed to prevent harm to the country. Scholz said he would call for a vote of no confidence on Jan. 15 in parliament, raising the possibility of elections earlier than scheduled in March.

“Anyone who joins a government must act responsibly and reliably, they cannot run for cover when things get difficult,” Scholz said at the press conference, according to a Reuters translation. “They must be willing to make compromises in the interests of all citizens … But that is precisely not Christian Lindner’s focus right now, he is focused on his own clientele.”

The situation had been coming to a head in recent weeks, with speculation about a potential break up of the coalition ramping up earlier in the week.

That came after a series of moves from the three parties, including a paper by Lindner of the FDP that outlined his vision to revive the German economy — crucially, however, by arguing against fundamental positions of the SPD and Green party.

“The paper reads like a serious attempt to analyze Germany’s problems and propose solutions. However, it argues against fundamental SPD and Green positions and will therefore be hard for them to accept,” Greg Fuzesi, euro area economist at JPMorgan, said in a research note Monday.

The parties have also been struggling to agree upon a 2025 budget, which still had a funding gap of several billions of euros and was still being negotiated. The deadline for the budget was set for later this month.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.