Clashes over budget could push Germany’s ailing coalition to collapse

With contradictory proposals unlikely to mesh, leaders to decide whether there is scope for alliance to continue

When, in 2021, Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats went into a traffic light" coalition with the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats, the new government was riding high on an enthusiastic spirit of cooperation.

There were promises to modernise, reinvigorate and green-proof Europe's largest economy. Germany, the coalition partners said, had sleep-walked into a complacent state during 16 years of rule under Angela Merkel. The new trio in power would jolt the country out of its hubris, and deliver it into a new era of vigour and creative transformation. That, at least, was the idea.