Spiegel-FDP Vote On Remaining In Gov't Could Start 18 Dec

Germany's Der Spiegel reportingthat the members vote within the pro-business liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) on whether the party should remain in the governing 'traffic light' coalition could begin as soon as 18 Dec. The report claims that the party leadership keen to have issue resolved by the time of the annual Epiphany meeting of the FDP in Stuttgart on 6 Jan.

• The vote will take place online over a period of two weeks, having been called after former FDP lawmaker Matthias Nolke gathered more than 500 signatures from party members demanding a ballot of the party's ~76k members on the issue.
• While the vote is non-binding, a strong result in favour of leaving the federal coalition combined with a high turnout would place significant pressure on the party leadership, headed by Finance Minister Christian Lindner, to pull their support from the gov't that also comprises Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the environmentalist Greens.
• The FDP vote comes as the Bundestag earlier on 15 Dec - as expected - approved the suspension of the constitutional debt brake for 2023. The coalition has reached a deal on the 2024 budget, with the debt brake in tact despite both the SPD and Greens pushing for its suspension next year as well.
• This carve out could give Lindner the political cover to argue to his party members that remaining in the coalition is crucial to curb the SPD and Greens' more fiscally expansionist tendencies.