Can anything rouse Germany from its economic slumber?

Mr Lindner says further cuts of €5bn ($5.5bn) must be found. That is barely 1% of the budget, but his suggestion that the books might be balanced by cutting welfare spending infuriated the Social Democrats, the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In what has become a familiar ritual, the notional allies immediately took their dispute public. From his holiday retreat, Mr Scholz contested Mr Lindner’s interpretation of the academic reading of the legal aspects of the budget. Only in Germany.