Ruling German government coalition collapses after chancellor Scholz fires finance minister

Germany's ruling coalition collapsed after the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, sacked his finance minister and paved the way for a snap election – triggering political chaos in Europe's largest economy just hours after Donald Trump won the US presidential election. Christian Lindner, the sacked minister, said: 'The chancellor gave me an ultimatum to suspend the constitutional debt brake. I couldn't do that because I would have been breaking my oath of office.' German government on brink of collapse after Olaf Scholz sacks finance minister