Less than 24 hours after he was kicked out of Germany’s governing coalition, former Finance Minister Christian Lindner was struggling to explain what had happened.

Opposition parties in Germany have called for new elections to be held as soon as possible after the three-way coalition government collapsed, plunging the country into political turmoil. They are urging an immediate vote of confidence in chancellor Olaf Scholz ’s coalition “by the beginning of next week at the latest”.