FILE PHOTO: Germany's Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Christian Lindner speaks next to FDP's top Schleswig-Holstein candidate Bernd Buchholz (not pictured) as they attend a news conference following the results of the Schleswig-Holstein regional elections, in Berlin, Germany, May 9, 2022. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) - Opening a crunch week that could prove fatal to Germany's tottering government, a senior party ally of Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was optimistic of finding a budget agreement with the three-party coalition's wayward finance minister.
Christian Lindner, leader of the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), surprised his more left-wing coalition partners on Friday with a budget document that proposed tax and spending cuts and deregulation as the answer to Germany's economic malaise.
