Interview: Scholz: Lindner might have had to be fired earlier

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has admitted mistakes with regard to the failed traffic light government. The SPD politician told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “I perhaps should have determined more quickly when things could no longer continue like this. I might have had to make the decision to dismiss the finance minister earlier. It’s no secret that “I’ve already thought about this before, when in the summer, despite the many hours we spent together, we simply couldn’t agree on the federal budget for 2025.”

Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) more than a week ago. The reason was a bitter dispute over economic policy and the debt brake. The traffic light coalition made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP collapsed. New elections to the Bundestag are planned for February.

When asked whether he had done something wrong, Scholz told the newspaper: “Of course, anything else would be surprising. I have always tried to find compromises. I still think that is the right thing to do, even though it is against the reputation of the government and “What hurt me as Chancellor was that we always took so long to deal with many issues and needed so many attempts.”

The SPD, Greens and FDP had reached a good coalition agreement. “So I was confident and stayed that way for a long time,” said Scholz. “Ultimately, we succeeded in a lot of things – for example, anchoring a special fund for the Bundeswehr in the constitution immediately after the Russian attack on Ukraine. Or, despite the loss of Russian energy supplies, preventing apartments from staying cold in the winter or companies from stopping their production “We have avoided a deep economic crisis, even if the economic situation is not what we would like.”