German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (2ndR) of the Greens party chats during a visit to a "last-Minute-Christmas market" in her constituency in Kleinmachnow, south-west of Berlin, on December 22, 2024. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote on December 16, 2024, spelling the effective end of his troubled government and putting Europe's biggest economy on the path to elections on February 23, 2025. (Photo by RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP) (Photo by RALF HIRSCHBERGER/AFP via Getty Images)