The German Parliament on Monday accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s invitation to withdraw confidence in him and his government, paving the way for early elections on February 23, thanks to 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 when Germany faces a deepening economic crisis.
Under rules designed to overcome 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 parliament’s 733 expressed confidence, whilst 394 withheld it.
“The movement has been adopted,” said Parliament Speaker Baerbel Bas.
The chancellor and his conservative opponent Friedrich Merz clashed angrily in a debate before the vote, accusing the other of incompetence and shortsightedness.
Scholz, of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), defended his record as a crisis leader who dealt with the economic and security emergency triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Given a second term, he said he would invest heavily in Germany’s creaking infrastructure, not make 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.
Merz, of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party once led by Angela Merkel, told Scholz that his spending plans would weigh on future generations and accused him of failing to fulfill his rearmament promises after the start of the war in Ukraine. .
“Going into debt at the expense of the younger generation, spending money, and not once has the word ‘competitiveness’ been uttered,” Merz said.
Neither leader discussed the constitutional limit on German spending, a measure designed to meet fiscal duties but which many economists attribute to the fragile state of Germany’s infrastructure.
Following Scholz’s defeat in Monday’s election, he can ask President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has already approved his timetable, to dissolve parliament. Scholz will remain acting chancellor until a new government can be formed after elections scheduled for Feb. 23.
The CDU have a comfortable, albeit narrowing lead of more than 10 points over the SPD in most polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is slightly ahead of Scholz’s party, while the Greens are in fourth place.
The dominant parties have refused to govern with the AfD, its presence complicates parliamentary arithmetic, making tripartite coalitions like Scholz’s more likely.
Meanwhile, Scholz presented a list of measures that could be passed with the opposition before the election, adding 11 billion euros ($16. 45 billion Canadian) in tax cuts and a tax increase. family benefits already agreed upon by former coalition partners.
Measures to tackle the fiscal drag appear less certain, while Merz said he would not back a proposal by the Greens to cut energy prices, saying he was looking for an entirely new energy policy.
Robert Habeck, the Greens’ candidate for chancellor, said the stance was a sign of concern for German democracy, given the growing likelihood in a fractured political landscape that many other parties would be forced to work together within the government.
“It’s very likely that the next government will have things easier,” Habeck said. “It is very likely that the conservatives, the SPD or the Greens will win an absolute majority. “
The conservatives have hinted they could back measures to better protect the Constitutional Court from the machinations of a future populist or anti-democratic government and to extend a popular subsidized transport ticket.
AfD leader Alice Weidel has called for the return of all Syrian refugees to Germany following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
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