Germany’s “traffic-light” coalition is dead, thanks to its finance minister’s refusal to let Chancellor Olaf Scholz open the spending floodgates. As the nation hurtles towards new elections in February, its faces months of political and economic uncertainty.
This isn’t just another domestic political squabble playing out in Berlin. While the world’s gaze has been fixed on America and Donald Trump‘s reelection, Germany’s situation is equally pressing.
The fall of Germany’s coalition government has exposed deep cracks in a system stretched to its limits. Now, the country’s stalling economic engine signals the end of an era in European politics.
Then-finance minister Christian Lindner’s refusal to approve unchecked deficits came as a desperate response to structural failures born of economic realities that can no longer be ignored.
After all, Europe’s economy is under siege. From the East, Chinese electric vehicles are flooding European markets, undercutting the prices of domestic manufacturers. Germany and France, …