German government coalition falls, Scholz no longer has the majority

Germany's ruling three-party coalition collapsed on Wednesday evening after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced he would sack his Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, due to continuing disputes over economic reforms.

Crisis talks in the coalition of the Schelz Social Democrat Party, Greens and Linder's Free Democratic Party had reached the helm after the FDP published a document with calls for liberal economic reforms that were difficult to accept by the other two parties.

During a dramatic meeting of the leaders of the three parties Wednesday evening in the Chancellor, Linder told Scholz that he saw no way to continue the coalition and urged him to open the way for early elections. This resulted in Scholz's announcement that he was going to download it, they told the media. LITICO's two people with knowledge of the discussions.

Although Scholz could potentially seek to continue government in a minority government, he has no majority to adopt a budget, increasing the likelihood of a no-confidence vote and early elections potentially in early March.