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德国联合政府因舒尔茨解雇财政部长而垮台
作者：Andreas Rogal 2024 年 11 月 6 日
“他多次辜负了我的信任”，总理在谈到财政部长克里斯蒂安·林德纳时说道。
德国执政联盟已垮台：社会民主党 (SPD) 总理奥拉夫·舒尔茨解雇了自由党 FDP 的财政部长克里斯蒂安·林德纳。
德国所谓的“红绿灯”联盟的领导人——社民党、自民党和绿党——当晚聚集在柏林总理府。
在多家媒体报道这一消息约一小时后，舒尔茨面对媒体，毫不含糊地批评了他的财政部长。
“他（林德纳）辜负了我的太多次信任”，舒尔茨说，并补充说“不再有进一步合作的信任基础”，因为自民党领导人“更关心自己的客户和自己政党的生存”，总理说。
联盟领导人会议被广泛报道为联盟的“成败”会议，尤其是林德纳在会议前夕暗示他不太担心后者。
在回应舒尔茨的尖锐言论时，林德纳指责总理“精心策划破坏联盟”，他的联盟伙伴“甚至不接受”自民党提出的扭转经济的建议“作为讨论的基础”。
关于如何重振疲软经济的分歧
联盟内部已经存在一段时间的分歧，2025 年的预算面临严重压力，德国经济表现令人失望，因此对如何面对和解决问题的建议也越来越不同。
许多联盟议员曾希望，在唐纳德·特朗普再次获得美国总统职位后，内部纷争将被搁置一旁，转而关注未来的地缘政治挑战。
社民党领导人拉尔斯·克林贝尔上午告诉德国公共广播公司 ARD：“我希望现在每个人都能抛开党派策略，希望大家今晚在联盟委员会上互相直视，再次意识到自己现在承担的责任。”
柏林智库雅克·德洛尔中心副主任、政治分析师 Thu Nguyen 表示，这并不是在社交媒体上发表评论。
舒尔茨还确认，他将在 1 月 15 日之前向联邦议院提出不信任投票，为最迟在 3 月底举行议会选举铺平道路。
经济和绿色转型部长罗伯特·哈贝克在代表绿党举行的新闻发布会上表示，从他们的角度来看，“今晚没有必要以这种方式结束”，因为已经提出了达成协议的建议。
他后来补充说，为了稳定，“我们现在将迅速为新选举扫清道路”，同时在此之前“全面”履行政府职责。
德国自封的硬汉无法接受舒尔茨解雇他
作者：Kamil Kowalcze 2024 年 11 月 7 日
(彭博社)——被踢出德国执政联盟后不到 24 小时，前财政部长克里斯蒂安·林德纳（Christian Lindner）一直在努力解释发生了什么。
周四，45 岁的林德纳在自由民主党总部接受记者采访时被问及，当天早上醒来时，德国的政治生活没有他而继续，他感觉如何。起初，他一反常态地失语，花了一点时间整理思绪。
“我现在处于一种境地，心里有很多想法，”他说。“我相信可能还有其他选择。”这位通常热情洋溢的财政部长努力控制自己的情绪，这说明导致三党联盟垮台并让德国在明年初提前举行大选的令人震惊的事件。这可能是他告别德国政坛的开始——林德纳的政党民调结果非常糟糕，可能会在即将到来的大选中被彻底淘汰。
德国总理奥拉夫·舒尔茨表示，他之所以解雇林德纳，是因为他拒绝增加借款以重振该国低迷的经济，并为向乌克兰提供超过 120 亿欧元（130 亿美元）的援助提供资金。相反，这位财政部长要求削减其他领域的开支。
“这意味着道路无法改善，学校无法发展，我们无法投资研发，也无法为企业和就业做任何事情，”舒尔茨在周四的简报会上说。“这就是我解雇联邦财政部长的原因。”
尽管舒尔茨政府长期以来一直运转失灵，但这一决定仍然这一切都令人感到意外，因为尽管林德纳领导着政府中最小的政党，但他一直在为联盟制定议程。
他削弱了绿党加速向可再生家庭供暖系统转变的计划，并推动了 2024 年预算的支出削减。他削弱了欧盟关于逐步淘汰内燃机的规定，收紧了领取失业救济金的规定，并调整了所得税等级以应对通货膨胀。
他真正的对手往往是绿党经济部长罗伯特·哈贝克，他常常通过说服舒尔茨支持他而获胜，暗中威胁说，如果他不按自己的意愿行事，舒尔茨可能会辞职。
“任何读过上次选举宣言的人都不会否认存在根本的政治和纲领分歧，”林德纳周四表示。“事实证明，我们之所以能够弥合许多政治分歧，是因为有钱可用。”
随着经济难以增长、税收收入缩减以及法院严厉打击特殊预算工具，资金不再能够弥合这些分歧。
林德纳以自己的声誉和作为政府中最不妥协成员的记录而自豪，他给人一种很享受作为强大财政部长地位的感觉。他喜欢受到关注，并迅速斥责下属或竞争对手，或就应该如何做事发表演讲。
局外人常常对舒尔茨会如何迁就林德纳感到困惑。现在，林德纳正试图接受自己的垮台，他的一位资深自由民主党同事抛弃了他，这位同事选择留在政府担任交通部长，而不是追随他的党魁。
他认为自己是联盟中最精明的战术家，通常比他的伙伴领先几步。但他没有想到，舒尔茨会准备推翻自己的政府，以便最终与他对抗。
“我听到了很多关于自民党和我自己的话，”林德纳说。“其中一些影响了我，一些值得深思。其他一些则完全是错误的。”
German coalition government collapses as Scholz fires his finance minister
By Andreas Rogal 06/11/2024
"He has broken my trust too many times", the chancellor said of his Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
The ruling German coalition has collapsed: Social Democrat (SPD) Chancellor Olaf Scholz has sacked Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the liberal FDP party.
The leaders of what is known in Germany as the "traffic light" coalition - SPD, FDP and the Greens - had gathered at the Chancellery in Berlin in the evening.
About an hour after the news was broken by several media outlets, Scholz faced the press and criticised his finance minister in no uncertain terms.
"He (Lindner) has broken my trust too many times", Scholz said, adding that there is "no more basis of trust for further cooperation" as the FDP leader is "more concerned with his own clientele and the survival of his own party," according to the chancellor.
The coalition leaders meeting was widely reported as a "make or break" meeting for the coalition, with Lindner, in particular, having hinted in the run-up that he was not too worried about the latter.
In his reaction to Scholz's scathing remarks, Lindner accused the chancellor of a "calculated break-up of the coalition" and his coalition partners of "not even accepting" the FDP's proposals for turning the economy around "as a basis for discussion".
Discord about how to revive an ailing economy
The coalition had been at odds for a while, with serious strains on the budget for 2025 and a disappointing performance by the German economy eliciting increasingly different suggestions on how to face and solve the problems.
Many coalition lawmakers had hoped that, after Donald Trump secured the US presidency once more, internal strife would be put aside to focus on the geopolitical challenges ahead.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil told German public broadcaster ARD in the morning: "I hope that everyone will now throw party tactics overboard, that everyone will look each other in the eye in the coalition committee this evening and realise once again what responsibility they now bear."
Political analyst Thu Nguyen, Deputy Director at the Berlin-based think tank Jacques Delors Centre, said it was not meant to be in a comment on social media.
Scholz also confirmed he would bring a no-confidence vote to the Bundestag by 15 January, paving the way for parliamentary elections by the end of March at the latest.
Robert Habeck, minister for the economy and the green transition, said in a press conference on behalf of the Greens that, from their perspective, "it wasn't necessary that the evening ended like this", as suggestions for an agreement had been presented.
He later added that, for the sake of stability, "we will now swiftly clear the way for new elections" while fulfilling the duties of government "in their entirety" until then.
Germany's Self-Styled Tough Guy Can't Process Scholz Fired Him
By Kamil Kowalcze November 07, 2024
Christian Lindner, left, and Olaf Scholz, in Berlin, on Nov. 7. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) -- Less than 24 hours after he was kicked out of Germany’s governing coalition, former Finance Minister Christian Lindner was struggling to explain what had happened.
Appearing before reporters at the headquarters of his Free Democrats party on Thursday, Lindner, 45, was asked how he’d felt when he woke up that morning as Germany’s political life raced on without him. At first, he appeared uncharacteristically lost for words, taking a moment to gather his thoughts.
“I am in a situation and have a lot on my mind,” he said. “I believe there might have been another option.”
The sight of the normally ebullient finance chief struggling to control his emotions speaks to the shocking events that brought down the three-party coalition and set Germany on course for a snap election early next year.
It might be the beginning of his farewell to German politics — Lindner’s party is polling so badly that it might be completely wiped out in the coming election.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he’d dismissed Lindner because he refused to increase borrowing in order to revive the country’s lackluster economy and to finance more than €12 billion ($13 billion) of aid to Ukraine. Instead, the finance chief was demanding spending cuts in other areas.
“That would mean roads couldn’t be improved, schools couldn’t be developed, that we couldn’t invest in research and development or do anything for companies and jobs,” Scholz said at his own briefing on Thursday. “That is the reason why I dismissed the federal finance minister.”
For all the long running dysfunction of the Scholz administration, the decision still came as a surprise because Lindner has consistently set the agenda for the coalition, despite leading the smallest party in the government.
He had weakened a plan by the Greens to accelerate the shift to renewable household heating systems and he pushed through spending cuts for the 2024 budget. He diluted European Union rules governing the phase-out of combustion engines, tightened the rules for accessing unemployment benefits and adjusted income tax brackets to account for inflation.
Often his real opponent was Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens and often he came out on top by persuading Scholz to back him, with the implicit threat that he might quit the government unless he got his way.
“No one who has read the election manifestos at the last election will deny that there are fundamental political and programmatic differences,” Lindner said Thursday. “It turned out that we were only able to bridge many political differences because money was available.”
With the economy struggling to grow, tax revenue shrinking and the courts cracking down on special budget vehicles, the money is no longer there to smooth over those differences.
Lindner took pride in his reputation and his record as the most uncompromising member of the government and he had the air of someone who enjoyed his status as the head of the powerful finance ministry. He thrived on the attention and was quick to dress down subordinates or rivals, or to dispense lectures on how things should be done.
Outsiders were often baffled by how far Scholz would go to accommodate Lindner. Now it’s Lindner who is trying to come to terms with his downfall, abandoned by a senior Free Democrat colleague who opted to stay in the government as transport minister rather than follow his party leader.
He’d considered himself the shrewdest tactician in the coalition who was usually several steps ahead of his partners. But he didn’t calculate that Scholz would be prepared to bring down his own government in order to finally stand up to him.
“I have heard many words about the FDP and about myself,” Lindner said. “Some of it affects me, some of it is food for thought. Others are simply wrong.”
