President Frank-Walter Steinmeier must now dissolve parliament and call elections.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence in parliament on Monday, putting the European Union’s most populous member and largest economy on course for a snap election in February.
Olaf Scholz won the support of 207 MPs in the 733-seat Bundestag, while 394 voted against him and 116 abstained. It is therefore far from the majority of 367 deputies necessary to win.
The chancellor is leading a minority government after his three-party coalition collapsed on November 6, with the dismissal of his finance minister following a dispute over how to revitalize Germany’s stagnant economy. The leaders of several major parties then agreed to hold legislative elections on February 23, seven months earlier than planned.
The vote of confidence was necessary because Germany’s post-war constitution does not allow the Bundestag to dissolve. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier must now decide whether to dissolve parliament and call elections.
He has 21 days to make this decision and, given the timing of the election, he is expected to do so after Christmas. Once Parliament is dissolved, elections must take place within 60 days.
In practice, the campaign is already well underway and Monday’s debate, which lasted three hours, reflected this.
Olaf Scholz, a candidate for his own succession, told lawmakers that elections would determine whether “we, as a strong country, dare to invest heavily in our future; do we have confidence in ourselves and our country, or are we putting our future at risk? Are we risking our cohesion and prosperity by delaying investments that should have been made long ago?”
In particular, he committed to “modernize” the strict rules that Germany imposes on itself regarding debt, to increase the national minimum wage and to reduce the value added tax on foodstuffs.
Center-right opponent Friedrich Merz responded that “you are leaving the country in one of the greatest economic crises in post-war history.”
You stand here and you say: “Keep it up, let’s go into debt at the expense of the younger generation, spend money and… the word “competitiveness” of the German economy did not appear once in the speech you gave today ‘today’said Mr. Merz.
