Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday, November 6, fired his rebellious Finance Minister Christian Lindner, spelling the end of the current three-party coalition.

The move came after weeks of bitter feuding that have rocked the coalition government between Scholz's Social Democrats, Linder's Free Democrats and the Greens.

Scholz fired his finance minister during a crunch meeting of senior figures from all three parties at the chancellery, Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told AFP. The chancellery scheduled a press conference for 2015 GMT.

Lindner had proposed sweeping reforms to jumpstart the troubled German economy that the other two parties opposed, and had long flirted with bolting the unhappy coalition.

He had repeatedly warned of "an autumn of decisions" as difficult budget talks have loomed.

Lindner had argued that Donald Trump's US presidential election victory had made an economic turnaround even more urgent.

Scholz said he will seek a vote of confidence in January that could pave the way for early elections.

He said he planned to "ask for a vote of confidence so that the parliament can vote on it on January 15. This way, the members of the parliament can decide whether to clear the way for early elections," which could be held by the end of March.