The german traffic-light coalition hit a dead-end just as the US political landscape shifted dramatically. Olaf Scholz made a quick-fire decision to remove Christian Lindner from his finance minister post‚ which happened mere hours after Trump won the presidential race
The break-up stems from a long-standing budget disagreement: Lindner (who leads the business-minded Free Democrats) pushed for budget cuts while facing economic downturn; however his partners - Social Democrats and Greens wanted more money for social needs defense and eco-projects. The three-party alliance that started about 3 years ago had its fair share of problems including that one time they fought over heating rules
We need a government that is ready to negotiate ... to make the necessary decisions for our country
Scholz pointed at Lindners party-first approach saying its not good for german people. The chancellor mentioned US election results several times noting that Trumps unclear position on Ukraine-Russia situation means Germany must boost its own defense spending; however Lindner didnt support this idea
The political shake-up will likely lead to more changes: theres gonna be a no-confidence vote next Jan 15th (which Scholz probably wont survive) followed by new elections in March. The traffic-light experiment that started with high hopes seems to be reaching its end-point due to different views on germanys future