German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expelled Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the leader of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), from government on Wednesday and tabled a January 15 vote of confidence in parliament that could trigger early elections. The FDP subsequently withdrew all its ministers from government, factually bringing the governing three-way coalition to an end. The dramatic events follow a bitter row within the centre-left government coalition of Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens of Economy Minister Robert Habeck and the FDP. The final insurmountable sticking point was how t…