The German parliament accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s invitation to withdraw its confidence in him and his government on Monday, clearing the way for an early election on Feb. 23 necessitated by the collapse of his government.
Scholz’s three-party coalition fell apart last month after the pro-market Free Democrats quit in a row over debt, leaving his Social Democrats and the Greens without a parliamentary majority just as Germany faces a deepening economic crisis.
Under rules designed to prevent the instability that facilitated the rise of fascism in the 1930s, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can only dissolve parliament and call an election if the chancellor calls, and loses, a confidence vote.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrives at the lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, on Dec. 16, 2024, to hear whether the parliament will rescind its confidence vote. (Liesa Johannssen)
GERMANY’S SCHOLZ REJECTS CALLS FOR NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE AS COALITION GOVERNMENT COLLAPSES
The debate preceding the vote also opened serious campaigning for the election, with party leaders trading ill-tempered barbs.
The chancellor and his conservative challenger, Friedrich Merz, who surveys suggest is likely to replace him, charged each other with incompetence and lack of vision.
Scholz, who will head a caretaker government until a new one can be formed, defended his record as a crisis leader who had dealt with the economic and security emergency triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
If given a second term, he said, he would invest heavily in Germany’s creaking infrastructure rather than making the spending cuts he said the conservatives wanted.
“Shortsightedness might save money in the short term, but the mortgage on our future is unaffordable,” said Scholz, who served four years as finance minister under a previous coalition with the conservatives before becoming chancellor in 2021.
GERMAN CHANCELLOR SCHOLZ WARNS NEXT EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT AGAINST COURTING FAR-RIGHT SUPPORT
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks on the day of a confidence vote at the lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, on Dec. 16, 2024 (Axel Schmidt)
Merz told Scholz his spending plans would burden future generations and accused him of failing to deliver on promises of rearmament after the start of the Ukraine war.
“Taking on debt at the cost of the young generation, spending money – and you didn’t say the word ‘competitiveness’ once,” said…
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