A Rather Orderly Collapse

What to know about the upcoming German 'snap' election

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will remain the Social Democratic candidate for chancellor in the upcoming elections on Feb. 23. Photo credit: Vlada Republike Slovenije from Ljubljana, Slovenia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The dust hadn’t even settled on the headlines announcing the results of the presidential election in the country I am from, when I woke up to headlines announcing the “collapse of the government” in the country where I now reside.

It’s enough to drive you to drink.

Fortunately—or, unfortunately, depending on your preference—I already drink.

And, also fortunately, I was familiar enough with Germany’s multi-party parliamentary democracy to know this wasn’t the catastrophe the clickbait headlines would have you believe.

What collapsed was the already tenuous three-way “traffic-light” governing coalition.