German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will reunite his coalition on Sunday evening to try to calm the growing tension between the ruling partners, which risks leading to a crisis, writes Agence France-Presse, quoted by Agerpres.

The dispute, which has been going on for weeks between the FDP liberals, the environmentalists (Greens) and the chancellor’s Social Democrats, the three formations of the coalition, concerns many topics, namely the environment, the funding of the army, transport infrastructure. and the budget for 2024 and subsequent years.

In addition to the differences on these issues, there is a decrease in mutual trust between the three parties, which is starting to worry and hinder the launch of large projects of the EU’s first economy.

“Everywhere we look, we seem to see fire in the government,” notes the weekly Der Spiegel. “They argue about priorities, blame each other, and everyone is disappointed that they cannot find compromises,” he summarizes the situation.

“The house of the coalition is about to catch fire,” writes Bild daily.

This internal tension in Berlin also spread to Brussels. Germany surprised its European partners when it blocked at the last minute a law that would have banned the sale of new cars with heat engines from 2035. Meanwhile, a compromise on this matter was found between the European Commission and Germany.

“Sometimes you still have to pull the bottle out of the alcoholic’s mouth”

The goal of Sunday’s meeting of the coalition led by Scholz is to bring order to it to stop the decline in the popularity of the three progressive formations, which are also beneficial to the conservative opposition CDU-CSU, which leads the polls. as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which, according to several sociological studies, could become a third political force.

But the differences are deep, and members of the coalition parties ended up making frank statements. “Sometimes you have to take a bottle of brandy out of an alcoholic’s mouth,” said Christoph Maier, a liberal official from the FDP, the party that heads the Finance Ministry and calls for budget austerity, while the other two coalition parties have become “dependent on public spending,” he said politician.

“One side represents progress, others hinder it”

For his part, Environment and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that “one party”, referring to his party, the Greens, “represents progress and the others prevent it”. The statement by the minister, who is a philosopher, is related to the differences that the Greens and the FDP have shown publicly for several weeks on the issue of internal combustion engines and the phasing out of oil and gas heating.

The tension reached such a point that VDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki said, later apologizing, that Robert Habek shared with Russian President Vladimir Putin “a similar belief that the state, the leader, the elected know better than the people what is best for them.”

Will Scholz manage to impose himself in front of stormy partners?

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) is calling for calm, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz, known for his style of stalling in the face of challenges rather than making firm decisions, seems unable to impose himself on his turbulent partners.

Conservatives from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have not stopped criticizing him during this time. “Leadership is needed more than ever, and Olaf Scholz doesn’t show it, he lets things go,” CDU vice-president Carsten Linnemann notes.