2024-11-13
30 分钟Der Spiegel journalist Regina Steffens and author John Kampfner explain how Germany’s traffic light coalition came to an end, and the profound problems facing whichever government comes next. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
This is the Guardian.
Today, why the German government collapsed and what it means for the rest of Europe and the world.
It was almost evening.
I was a bit sleepy and around nine in the evening my sister texted me, wake up.
Check the news.
Come to Berlin.
This is Regina Steffens, a German journalist from Der Spiegel who has been spending the last few weeks with us on Today in Focus.
She'd stayed up all night with us last week to make our US election episode and woke up from a nap last Wednesday to a flurry of texts and push notifications.
Germans were just digesting Donald Trump's victory when there was huge news much closer to home.
Germany's coalition government was about to collapse.
It was fascinating to see how quickly the US election, which dominated German media landscape for months, seemed to disappear from the top stories.
And maybe to give you a sense what it means, Helen, the last time a German government coalition collapsed was in 1982.
So before east and West Germany were even reunited.
The double whammy of the US result, coupled with political turmoil back home, hit Regina where it hurt.
There's this German word called weltschmerz.
I don't know if this exists in English, but it means that you feel like the pain because of the world's sad and frightening situation.
Literally the pain of the world.
Coalitions in Germany are formed with the expectation, with the trust to be stable, stability, a very key principle in Germany and German politics.
So when we elect a government, we assume it will remain in power until the next regular election.
The economic storm clouds have been gathering over Germany ever since Olav Scholz became Chancellor in 2021 after Angela Merkel's 16 year reign.