{"id":402167,"date":"2024-11-04T17:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/11\/04\/germania-crisi-governo-verdi-fdp-spd\/"},"modified":"2024-11-08T18:05:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T17:05:12","slug":"germany-governing-coalition-seems-one-step-closer-to-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/11\/04\/germany-governing-coalition-seems-one-step-closer-to-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany, governing coalition seems one step closer to collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0German Chancellor\u00a0Olaf Scholz<\/strong> will have to don the shoes of the fireman, but also those of the bridge-builder, when, starting today (Nov. 4), he will meet with his quarrelsome government partners to try to settle the collapse<\/strong> of the tottering “semaphore coalition<\/strong>,” the unprecedented political coalition\u2014made up of Social Democrats, ecologists and liberals\u2014that has been governing in Berlin since the Merkel era ended. The bone of contention is a proposal to jumpstart the German economy<\/strong>, circulated by the finance minister, the liberal Christian Lindner<\/strong>, which goes in the opposite direction to the one put forward by the economy minister, the environmentalist Robert Habeck<\/strong>. If no agreement is reached, Germans could return to the polls as early as next spring.<\/p>\n

A quarrelsome coalition<\/h3>\n

Chancellor Scholz’s week begins with a decidedly complex Monday. The Social Democratic leader will meet today<\/a> the representatives of the two parties with which his SPD\u00a0has shared executive power since\u00a02021: the Greens<\/strong> (B\u00fcndnis 90\/Die Gr\u00fcnen) and the liberals of the FDP<\/strong> (Freie Demokratische Partei). The goal is to prevent the coalition government from collapsing. The reason why this might happen\u00a0is\u00a0an informal document<\/strong> released last Friday<\/a> (Nov. 1) by the Finance Ministry<\/strong> in which a rigorist<\/strong>\u00a0plan to restore the German economy<\/strong> is proposed, in stark contrast to the plan advanced just a week earlier by\u00a0the\u00a0minister<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0for the Economy<\/strong>, which was decidedly more generous in terms of public investment.<\/p>\n

In the end, the redde rationem<\/i> between the “hawks” of the FDP, to which Finance Minister Christian Lindner<\/strong> belongs, and the ecologists of Economy incumbent Robert Habeck<\/strong> (likely candidate for the chancellery<\/a> in 2025) seems to have arrived. The former are notoriously strict on public finances, while the latter (along with Scholz’s SPD) favour a more central role for the state in the economy. Thus, less than a year before the next legislative elections, the political clash may have reached the point of no return<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Two alternative plans<\/h3>\n

\n

Habeck’s proposal<\/strong> envisages the introduction<\/a> of a multi-billion-euro fund<\/strong> (no precise figure is known) to stimulate investment<\/strong> and circumvent the tight budget constraints<\/strong> imposed by German laws. “The budget’s room for manoeuvre is too limited to allow for public and private investment on a significantly larger scale than at present,” reads the document prepared by the Economy Minister, who lashed out mainly at the “debt brake<\/strong>,” a constitutional provision that prevents the Berlin government from spending more than it recovers each year. The fund would be aimed primarily at businesses<\/strong> (from startups to SMEs to large corporations) and last\u00a0five years<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Lindner calls for a substantial tax cut<\/strong> and a stop to new green legislation<\/strong>, which would have proven harmful to businesses and the economy in general. The finance chief is calling for “an economic turnaround with a\u00a0<\/span>revision of fundamental parts of key policy decisions<\/strong>,” including, among other things, the immediate abolition of the so-called “solidarity surcharge<\/strong>” (a 5.5 per cent contribution introduced after reunification that companies in former West Germany have to pay extra on their taxes to “compensate” for the economic backwardness of regions in the former GDR). Other members of the FDP\u2014the needle in the Bundestag for the survival of the majority\u2014have reportedly closed the door to negotiations on the federal budget for 2025<\/strong> (which would imply the opening of a government crisis) if Scholz’s “traffic light” executive does not change its approach on economic policy.<\/p>\n

Avoiding the worst?<\/h3>\n

During\u00a0<\/span>a series of meetings with Lindner and Habeck<\/strong>\u00a0that could go on throughout the week, the chancellor will now try\u00a0<\/span>to square the circle<\/strong> by holding together as many elements as possible of the two plans to recover Germany’s productive engine. The crisis in the Old Continent’s strongest economy has only drawn deeper and deeper furrows<\/strong> between those who should be allies but are in often irreconcilable positions, making litigations between government partners increasingly frequent and paralyzing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For some observers, the crisis of the Scholz government would now be inevitable<\/strong> and could bring<\/a> the German electorate to the polls several months ahead of the natural expiration of the legislature, that is, in March instead of September 2025.\u00a0For that matter, Lindner himself had already\u00a0<\/span>considered the possibility<\/a>\u00a0of withdrawing\u00a0<\/span>from the coalition executive<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>following<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>resounding defeats<\/strong>\u00a0recorded by his party in the\u00a0<\/span>regional elections in Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg<\/strong>\u00a0in case the FDP’s demands on economic policy were not met.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pushing for early elections, of course, is the CDU\/CSU<\/strong> of Friedrich Merz<\/strong>, the main opposition party.\u00a0According to the latest polls, the Christian Democrats have<\/span>\u00a0about 32 per cent of support<\/strong>.<\/span> They would<\/span>\u00a0easily win back the chancellorship, ending the lacklustre\u00a0Herr<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>Scholz interlude and picking up where\u00a0Frau\u00a0Merkel left off.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The three parties that make up the German executive seem to have come to loggerheads after the liberals presented an economic plan diametrically opposed to the one put forward by the Greens only a few days earlier. Chancellor Scholz will have to succeed in the difficult task of holding together his quarrelsome majority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":402134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[28504,29565,26267,29564,28801,26268,29085,27786,26265,26680],"class_list":["post-402167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-christian-lindner-en","tag-fdpand","tag-germany-in-2","tag-crisi-governo-en","tag-crisi-di-governo-en","tag-olaf-scholz-en","tag-robert-habeck-en","tag-spd-en","tag-coalition-semaphore-en","tag-value-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402167"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402209,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402167\/revisions\/402209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}