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Scholz had called for the confidence vote himself after his three-party coalition government imploded last month, leaving him with a minority government.
Scholz requested the confidence vote, which will pave the way for early elections. (Reuters)
In a significant development, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a no-confidence motion on Monday, paving the way for early general elections on February 23, 2025.
Out of the Bundestag deputies, 394 voted against Scholz while only 207 expressed confidence in the chancellor, with 116 abstentions. Scholz had been expected to lose the vote after his three-way coalition fell apart last month.
Interestingly, Scholz had requested the confidence vote himself as his fractious three-party coalition government collapsed after the Free Democrats (FDP) left Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens following disputes over the budget.
As per the norms, Scholz had to ask the president to dissolve the parliament, triggering fresh elections. The German Chancellor had agreed with the opposition to hold the election on February 23.
The confidence vote took place as the post-World War II German Constitution did not allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had the power to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election.
This was only the sixth time in its postwar history that a chancellor had called for a confidence vote. The last was in 2005, when then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder engineered an early election that was narrowly won by centre-right challenger Angela Merkel.
Olaf Scholz’s Rising Unpopularity
Scholz’s unpopular government imploded when he tried to sack his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalise Germany’s stagnant economy. He currently lags badly behind conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of former Chancellor Angela Merkel in opinion polls.
His leadership has been the subject of harsh criticism, becoming one of the least popular chancellors in decades. Scholz has struggled to revive a struggling economy hammered by high energy prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and tough competition from China.
Polls suggest the opposition conservatives are on track to win the federal election, with a survey on Monday putting them on 31 per cent, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany on 18 per cent, Scholz’s SPD on 17 per cent and the Greens on 13 per cent.
Scholz is the “face” of a failed government marked by perpetual disputes, according to news magazine Der Spiegel. He is “probably the weakest, most unsuitable candidate for the chancellorship that the SPD has ever put forward”, it said.
‘One Of Biggest Post-War Economic Crises’ In Germany
In the lower house of the parliament, Scholz clashed with opposition leader Merz while outlining his plans for massive spending on security, business and social welfare. Scholz accused the previous CDU governments of leaving the armed forces in a “deplorable state”.
“It is high time to invest powerfully and decisively in Germany,” Scholz said, warning about Russia’s war in Ukraine that “a highly armed nuclear power is waging war in Europe just two hours’ flight from here”.
Merz shot back by saying that Scholz had left the country in “one of the biggest economic crises of the postwar era”. Merz, who has been open to sending the long-range missiles, said that “we don’t need any lectures on war and peace” from Scholz’s party.
“You’re standing here and saying, business as usual, let’s run up debt at the expense of the younger generation, let’s spend money and… the word competitiveness’ of the German economy didn’t come up once in the speech you gave today,” Merz added.
The troubled political landscape in Germany is also because of the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has seen strong performances in regional elections give it a national boost. Their growing popularity signals a shift in Germany’s political dynamics, where far-right parties were considered a taboo due to the dark history of World War II.
- Location :
Berlin, Germany
