Cheat sheet on Germany's colour-coded politics

Germany's three-party "traffic light" coalition has collapsed and new elections could bring a "black-red" government while a "Jamaica" or "blackberry" alliance is seen as highly unlikely.

Confused? Here is a cheat sheet for Germany's colour-coded party politics as Europe's biggest economy is headed for a February 23 vote.

Every German party is traditionally associated with a colour, and national flags and other imagery are commonly used as shorthand for possible constellations.

Here are Germany's main parties, their colours, leaders and what they stand for:

The centre-left party of embattled Chancellor Olaf Scholz, 66, is Germany's oldest with origins in a labour association founded in the mid-1800s.

Its key demands are fair wages, pensions and social benefits, and its symbol is a red rose.

The SPD prides itself on its principled opposition to the Nazis before it was banned and its members exiled.

Party lore also says that dialogue with Moscow, rather than confrontation, helped end the Cold War.

Famous former SPD chancellors include Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt.

Germany's main conservative party, now led by former corporate lawyer Friedrich Merz, 69, prioritises boosting the economy, law and order and traditional "family values".

Merz has vowed to steer the party back to its traditional roots, away from the more centrist course charted by Angela Merkel.

The CDU has defended strong ties with the United States and NATO.

Merz has also vowed to push back against irregular immigration and bring back nuclear energy, phased out under Merkel.

The CDU is in a permanent alliance with Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) led by ambitious Markus Soeder.

Prominent former CDU chancellors include the first post-WWII leader Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, dubbed the father of Germany's 1990 reunification.

The FDP, which promotes liberal economic policies and small government, was long Germany's main "third party" and has had a key role in building and bringing down governments.

Its leader, former finance minister Christian Lindner, 45, provoked the government crisis that came to a head when Scholz fired him in early November.

The turmoil recalled a crisis in 1982 when the FDP switched sides, bringing down Schmidt, who was replaced by Kohl.

The FDP is sometimes mocked as the party of the rich for its demand for low taxes, but sees itself as a watchdog against government overreach, bureaucracy and red tape.

The Greens emerged out of the environmental, anti-nuclear and peace protest movement of the 1970s and 80s.

Its first MPs shocked the staid Bundestag when they showed up in knitted pullovers and put their feet on the benches.

But the party has since firmly entered the mainstream and advocates strong military support for Ukraine against Russia.

The current alliance was built in 1993 with activist groups from the formerly communist East Germany.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, 55, is the top election candidate of the Greens, which is also the party of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

The far-right party started off a decade ago as a eurosceptic fringe party but has since embraced a virulent anti-immigrant and anti-Islam agenda.