-Analysis-
HAMBURG — When Donald Trump was first elected, Barack Obama made a symbolic trip to Berlin, passing the torch of free world leadership to Angela Merkel. Fast forward to Trump’s second election win, and within mere hours, the German federal government disintegrated.
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The parallel draws a clear picture of the crisis triggered by Germany’s governing traffic light coalition — of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. To throw one’s own country into disarray by disbanding the government on the very day Trump’s victory sent a chill through democracies worldwide was hardly a wise move.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of SDP has been trying hard to paint FDP’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner as the villain in this story. He did so in a remarkable speech Wednesday evening, shortly after he had dismissed Lindner from his role.
He no longer had any trust in his minister, Scholz said, adding that “serious government work” was not achievable with Lindner on board. He was not the only one to think that. Such clear words from the chancellor must have resonated in many, if not most, hearts and minds in the red-green coalition: the yellows, the FDP, had been sabotaging the government for months.
Lindner caused his own expulsion
And it is true: Lindner caused his own expulsion and maybe even consciously took part in it.
When pushing forward his pro-business, anti-environmentalist proposals “to save the German economy,” which he knew the SPD and the Greens could not accept, Lindner knew very well that he was putting nails in the coalition’s coffin. When he called for new elections in the coalition committee on Wednesday evening, Lindner effectively ended the alliance, even though he later tried to pin the blame on Scholz.
Pointing the finger solely at Lindner would be a cop-out.
The truth is that Scholz had no real choice left. His frustration with Lindner was no secret. Right until the last stretch of their term, Scholz had bent over backward to accommodate the FDP’s demands. And it didn’t do him any good.
The result was poor compromises on climate, migration and social policy. At the same time Lindner’s FDP made Scholz’s chancellorship look weak and divided, permanently jeopardizing the SPD’s shot at another term in government.
But pointing the finger solely at Lindner would be a cop-out. When examining the reasons for this government’s downfall, Scholz’s own choices come squarely into focus.Initially, many held out hope for a traffic light coalition under a chancellor who might lack charisma but was thought to be diligent and experienced. Yet whenever the going got tough, Scholz seemed to fade away. Too often, he shrank back, stayed quiet, and lacked the decisive strength needed to steer the wheel of his own government.
Scholz’s power vacuum
The hashtag #whereisscholz (#woistscholz in German) was already trending during his first few weeks in office. First, it was about mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, later about arms shipments to Ukraine: On key issues, Scholz appeared sluggish.
While no one expects a chancellor to rule with an iron fist, Scholz’s traffic light coalition was so riddled with internal strife that many voters wished he’d shown a firmer hand.
In a sense, Scholz himself created the vacuum of power that Lindner and other dissatisfied politicians from the traffic light coalition exploited. Leading members of the Green Party also openly blamed Scholz’s leadership style for the collapse of the traffic light coalition.
High time for change
Lindner did not hold back on personal accusations against Scholz when he spoke to the press after his dismissal. He said Scholz did not have the “strength” to continue, that his reform proposals were “weak” and “unambitious.”
And what’s more, he accused the chancellor of having brought about this break in a “calculated” manner — an accusation that Scholz had previously made against him in a similar way.
And so, this is what remains of the coalition: Two bitter men, locked in a blame game, pointing fingers at each other in the wake of Trump’s reelection, which will challenge Germany and the whole continent. They weren’t up to the task, and it’s high time for change.
