Germany's coalition government falls apart — how it happened

Representatives of the three parties making up Germany's center-left government — the Social Democrats (SPD), neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens — met for a crisis meeting on Wednesday evening. It lasted only two hours.

The coalition partners no longer had much to say to each other. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) proposed early elections, Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused and dismissed Lindner from office. Scholz addressed the media at 9.15 pm.

This was the day on which the first three-party alliance in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany spiraled out of control and could no longer stabilize itself.