The leaders of Germany’s major parties have agreed to hold a federal election on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s troubled three-party coalition last week, Politico reported. Scholz is now expected to hold a vote of confidence on Dec. 16 paving the way for the February election. For days, there has been speculation and debate on the timing of the vote.
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Germany
Germany’s new finance minister dismissed fears the political turmoil in Berlin will trigger a funding freeze, pledging the federal government will be fully capable of functioning in the weeks before February’s early election, Bloomberg News reported. Joerg Kukies, appointed last week after Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired his predecessor and brought a premature end to the ruling coalition, said it’s still unclear whether Scholz’s minority government can get a supplementary budget for this year and the 2025 finance plan approved in parliament.
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Project developer HH2E AG is set to file for self-administration after it failed to secure financing for one of Germany’s largest hydrogen projects, Bloomberg News reported. HH2E has been fundraising for its first development project, a hydrogen production plant in the Baltic port of Lubmin. While it said negotiations resulted in final agreements, majority shareholder Foresight Group Holdings Ltd. ultimately decided against providing the necessary financing, HH2E said in a statement. Foresight didn’t comment on its role in the breakdown of financing discussions in a separate statement.
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Germany’s fractious coalition government collapsed on Wednesday, tipping the economically embattled nation into a political crisis and adding uncertainty for Europe as the region grapples with Donald Trump’s election win in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner, chairman of the pro-business Free Democratic Party—the smallest member of his three-way coalition of free-market liberals, social democrats and Greens—because of disagreements over economic policy, a spokesman for Scholz said.
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German manufacturing orders jumped more than expected in September, driven by large-scale orders, offering a glimpse of hope that the recent downturn in the beleaguered sector may be abating, the Wall Street Journal reported. Orders climbed 4.2% on month in September, according to data published Wednesday by Germany’s statistics agency Destatis. That was better than economists’ expectations for a 1.4% rise, according to a Wall Street Journal poll, and contrasts with the 5.4% fall in August orders.
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German air-taxi maker Lilium said on Monday it would file for insolvency "soon," after efforts to solve its cash-crisis failed to yield results, Reuters reported. The move highlights the difficulties faced by startup aviation firms in an industry that is capital intensive and has high entry barriers. It also comes as air-taxi makers navigate challenges in developing batteries powerful enough for their aircraft and convincing the public of their safety, even as they deal with an evolving regulatory environment.
Germans are eager to sell hundreds of billions of euros’ worth of goods in Italy, while drinking its wines, skiing its Alps and sunning on its beaches. But in the weeks since UniCredit, a multinational bank based in Milan, swooped in to take a 21 percent stake in Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest lenders, that fondness has been shown to have its limits, the New York Times reported.
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German inflation quickened more sharply than expected and exceeded the European Central Bank’s 2% target – underpinning the challenges for policymakers in deciding on the pace and extent of further monetary-policy easing, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer-price growth in Europe’s largest economy picked up to 2.4% in October from 1.8% the previous month – well above the 2.1% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Base effects linked to energy helped drive the uptick, with services, goods and food also contributing, according to statistics agency Destatis.
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Kelheim Fibers GmbH has applied for protective shield proceedings (bankruptcy protection) at the Regensburg District Court in Germany. The court ruling followed the application and thus paved the way for further implementation of the plan renovation course, Nonwovens-Industry.com reported. The company had already developed a restructuring plan with its financiers in June and its home city Kelheim also made a significant contribution with the acquisition of the VfL property from Kelheim Fibers GmbH.
The Schoeller Group is in exclusive talks to buy Signa’s Upper West tower in Berlin, according to people familiar with the matter, in one of the most closely watched property transactions in Germany, Bloomberg News reported. The industrialist family’s investment office has been picked for exclusive negotiations after several rounds of bids for the building that is part of Austrian tycoon Rene Benko’s defunct empire. The insolvency administrator of Signa Prime Selection AG had been nearing a deal to sell the property for more than €400 million ($432 million), Bloomberg previously reported.
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