Free Democrats reportedly planned German coalition exit weeks before final split

Pro-business party internally referred to its plans as D-day'

Germany's pro-business Free Democrats, who collapsed Olaf Scholz's governing coalition earlier this month in a dispute over the budget, reportedly plotted their exit weeks before the final split, referring to their plans internally as D-day".

Newspapers Die Zeit and Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that the FDP had intended from at least September to force a situation that would provoke the German chancellor into pulling the plug on his tripartite coalition.