Chancellor Olaf Scholz(SPD) lost a confidence vote in the German parliament on Monday, putting the European Union’s most populous member and biggest economy on course to hold an early election in February, according to ”time.com” .
Scholz won the support of 207 lawmakers in the 733-seat lower house, or Bundestag, while 394 voted against him and 116 abstained. That left him far short of the majority of 367 needed to win.
The confidence vote was needed because post-World War II Germany’s constitution doesn’t allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself. Now President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has to decide(within 21 days) whether to dissolve parliament and call an election. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days.
Scholz, a center-left Social Democrat, told lawmakers that the election will determine whether “we, as a strong country, dare to invest strongly in our future”.
Center-right challenger Friedrich Merz(CDU) responded that “you’re leaving the country in one of its biggest economic crises in postwar history.”
What are their chances?
Polls show Scholz’s party trailing well behind Merz’s main opposition Union bloc, which is in the lead. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the environmentalist Greens, the remaining partner in Scholz’s government, is also bidding for the top job — though his party is further back.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, which is polling strongly, has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor but has no chance of taking the job because other parties refuse to work with it.
Germany’s electoral system traditionally produces coalitions, and polls show no party anywhere near an absolute majority on its own. The election is expected to be followed by weeks of negotiations to form a new government.
Confidence votes are rare in Germany, a country of 83 million people that prizes stability. This was only the sixth time in its postwar history that a chancellor had called one.
Read the full art. on ”time.com” .
Distribution of seats in the German Bundestag 2024 (source: bundestag.de)
Related art.:
– 16.12.2024: German Chancellor Scholz loses no-confidence vote, paving way for election – ”reuters.com”
– 16.12.2024: How to Understand the Collapse of Germany’s Government, and What’s Next – ”nytimes.com”
