Analysis-‘No trust’: Germany’s ruling coalition hangs by a thread | U.S. & World [Video]

By Andreas Rinke, Christian Kraemer and Sarah Marsh

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced this month a summit of industry leaders to discuss how to save Germany’s flailing economy.

A week later the economy minister laid out his own proposals. Then the finance minister announced another business summit to take place on Tuesday – the same day as Scholz’s.

None of the announcements were coordinated with one another, or met with reciprocal approval, in a cacophony underscoring the growing dysfunction within Germany’s ideologically disparate coalition of centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), free market Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens.

The campaign for next year’s federal election appears to have unofficially started already, pitting the three ruling parties against one another, say senior party and government officials. The risk of their coalition falling apart is higher than ever before.

Panic within the parties over dismal performances in recent regional elections which saw the FDP and Greens drop out of some …