Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a much-vaunted “industrial summit” on Tuesday, sitting down with business leaders and union bosses to figure out how to pull Germany out its current malaise. Pointedly left off the guest list: his own finance and economy ministers.
Robert Habeck, the economy minister, responded by unveiling plans for a multibillion-euro, debt-financed investment fund — an idea not previously discussed with cabinet colleagues — while finance minister Christian Lindner simply scheduled his own, rival business summit on the same day.
The duel of the summits, against the backdrop of a stagnating economy and Volkswagen mulling domestic factory closures for the first time in its history, symbolises the disarray at the heart of Scholz’s coalition — a loveless marriage that increasingly seems on the verge of divorce.