Fragile coalition crumbles after days of crisis talks, with elections expected as soon as March, six months ahead of schedule

Germany’s fragile government has collapsed after Olaf Scholz fired his finance minister on Wednesday evening.

The Chancellor sacked Christian Lindner after days of crisis talks and amid a deluge of rumours that his turbulent coalition was about to come to an end. The Telegraph has the story.

In a statement to the press on Wednesday evening, the chancellor accused his finance minister of “breaking his trust” and putting the “short-term survival of his party over the wellbeing of the country.”

Mr Scholz, 66, said that he would put his chancellorship to a vote of confidence in January, a move that will clear the way for early elections in March.

Mr Lindner, head of the pro-business Free Democrats, had been pushing for corporate tax relief and a delay to net zero targets as part of a comprehensive package to get the economy moving after years of stagnation.

Mr Scholz claimed that he made a “generous offer” to Mr Lindner but that the finance minister “showed no interest whatsoever in accepting this offer for the good of the country”.

“Too often, Mr Lindner has blocked laws in an irrelevant manner, too often he has engaged in petty party-political tactics, too often he has broken my trust,” Mr Scholz said.

Mr Lindner hit back in a statement made shortly after in which he accused Mr Scholz of “not having the strength to give our country a new start.”

He added that the Chancellor had tried to get him to suspend the country’s strict debt brake rules, something he refused to accept.

At the end of last week, Mr Lindner set out his conditions for staying in the government in an internal paper that called for an “economic transformation”.

Among the measures were a demand to cut the corporate tax level, freeze all new business regulations and push back the target of achieving net zero by five years.

The paper was immediately rejected by Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens, the third party in the coalition.

Mr Scholz began non-stop crisis meetings with his finance minister and vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck of the Greens on Monday, but the three men failed to reach agreement.

Read the full story here.