– German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday he would respect any decision by his center-left Social Democrats to quit conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition.
Scholz belongs to a camp in his party that is in favor of remaining in Merkel’s coalition, which the SPD joined reluctantly after suffering painful losses in the 2017 national election. Leftist SPD members are fed up with their party propping up Merkel and prefer to rebuild in opposition. The SPD has been without a leader since Andrea Nahles resigned in June after her party suffered its worst losses in the elections to the European Parliament.
About 45% said the party should quit the government, which would either trigger a snap election or lead to a minority government.