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The German parliament on Monday accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s invitation to withdraw its confidence in him and his government, paving the way for early elections on February 23, necessitated by the collapse of his government.
Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed last month after the pro-market Free Democrats resigned in a debt dispute, leaving his Social Democrats and 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 elections if the chancellor calls and loses a vote of confidence.
Only 207 of the 733 members of parliament expressed their confidence, while 394 denied it.
“The motion has been approved,” said Parliament President Baerbel Bas.
Merz attacks Scholz’s record
The chancellor and his conservative rival Friedrich Merz clashed angrily in a debate before the vote, accusing each other of incompetence and shortsightedness.
Scholz, of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), defended his record as a crisis leader who addressed the economic and security emergency caused by the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. If given a second term, he said he would invest heavily in Germany’s crumbling infrastructure, not make the spending cuts he said conservatives wanted.
“Myopia 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.
Merz, of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party once led by Angela Merkel, told Scholz that his spending plans would burden future generations and accused him of failing to fulfill his rearmament promises after the start of the Ukraine war.
“Going into debt at the expense of the young generation, spending money… and the word ‘competitiveness’ was not mentioned even once,” Merz said.
Neither leader mentioned Germany’s constitutional spending limit, a measure designed to ensure fiscal responsibility but which many economists blame for the deteriorating state of German infrastructure.
After Scholz loses Monday’s vote, he will be able to request the dissolution of parliament from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has already endorsed his timetable. Scholz will remain as interim chancellor until a new government can be formed after elections scheduled for February 23.
far-right AfD
The CDU has a comfortable, albeit shrinking, lead of more than 10 points over the SPD in most polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is slightly ahead of Scholz’s party, while the Greens are in fourth place.
The main parties have refused to govern with the AfD, but its presence complicates parliamentary arithmetic, making unwieldy tripartite coalitions like Scholz’s more likely.
Scholz, meanwhile, has outlined a list of measures that could be passed with opposition support before the election, including €11 billion ($16.45 billion Canadian) in tax cuts and an increase in child benefits already agreed upon. by former coalition partners.
Measures to address the fiscal burden appear less certain, while Merz said he would not back a Greens proposal to reduce energy prices, saying he wants an entirely new energy policy.
Robert Habeck, the Greens’ chancellor candidate, said that stance was a worrying sign for German democracy, given the growing likelihood in a fractured political landscape that very different parties would have to work together in government.
“It is very unlikely that the next government will have it easier,” Habeck said. “It is very unlikely that the Conservatives, the SPD or the Greens will win an absolute majority.”
Conservatives have hinted that they could back measures to better protect the Constitutional Court from the machinations of a future populist or undemocratic government and extend a subsidized popular transport ticket.
AfD leader Alice Weidel called for all Syrian refugees in Germany to be returned following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
