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Trust between Germany's coalition leaders has been lost, reports suggest (Image: Getty)
The future of Olaf Scholz's "traffic light" coalition government hangs in the balance with talk of a break up between parties growing.
Germans aren't due to go to the polls until September 28 next year, but relations between the leaders of Germany's coalition parties are said to be frayed.
People close to the situation have claimed trust is lost between Mr Scholz, Free Democrats leader Christian Lindner and the Greens Robert Habeck, who is Germany's vice-chancellor.
The trio have shifted their focus towards winning voters over rather than trying to find "common ground" with each other, according to insiders who spoke to Bloomberg and asked not to be identified.
Strains surfaced during Mr Scholz's trip to India last week when he told a student who asked for his view of leading a coalition: "The coalition government which I'm leading is not the easiest in the world."
Olaf Scholz told a student Germany's coalition was not the 'easiest in the world' on a trip to India (Image: Getty)
Tensions have been worsened by Germany's economic downturn, with manufacturing struggling against global competition and talk of recession.
A slowdown in China, a drop in domestic consumer spending, Germany's ageing society and low productivity have all conspired against a country now dubbed the "sick man of Europe".
Real GDP in Germany is projected to come in at 0.0% this year compared with 1.1% for the UK and 1.1% for France, according to the International Monetary Fund.
After the 2021 German federal election, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Green Party and liberal Free Democrats (FDP) formed a "traffic-light" coalition, in reference to the red, yellow and green colours of the three parties.
Since that election, all three coalition parties have lost support in polls, in part prompted by anti-immigrant sentiment fuelled by fears about living standards.
Real GDP in Germany isn't expected to grow this year (Image: Getty)
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Analysis of German voting intention from YouGov published in September put the SPD on 14%, the FDP on 4% and Greens at 13%. At the last election, the parties respectively gained 26%, 11% and 15% of the vote.
Meanwhile, populist parties on the left and right have seen their support grow. The far-right Alternative for Germany party was polling at 18% and the new, left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance at 8%, according to YouGov.
Jürgen Goldinger, CEO of German ventilation specialist Maico Holding and part of the business delegation that recently visited India with Mr Habeck, told Bloomberg: "It seems difficult to reach a consensus across party lines and then find a pragmatic way to make decisions."
According to the insiders, high-ranking officials have considered that the only thing which can save the coalition is the fear factor resulting from Donald Trump returning to the White House.
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