JOSÉ HENRIQUE MARIANTE
Germany will have parliamentary elections brought forward to February 23, seven months ahead of schedule. After the end of the coalition that governed the country for the last three years, the SPD, Prime Minister Olaf Scholz’s party, and the main opposition party, the CDU, reached an agreement after almost a week of deadlock.
Scholz must also submit to a vote of confidence – a kind of approval test among parliamentarians – on December 16, about a month earlier than he himself had predicted when he fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner, leader of the FDP. The liberal party made up an unpopular triple coalition, together with the Prime Minister’s Greens and Social Democrats.
Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU and who is positioning himself as a candidate for head of government, wanted even shorter deadlines, with elections in January. The new date was approved by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has a formal role in the country’s political system.
Lindner entered into a collision course with Scholz and Economy Minister Robert Habeck in managing the country’s struggling economy.
He unilaterally launched a neoliberal package and took a stand against relaxing the current debt ceiling, a step that Scholz, part of the opposition and the market consider necessary to lift the country out of stagnation.
European leaders closely follow the internal politics of the bloc’s largest economy. In addition to the effect that greater or lesser German spending could have on the group, there is concern about a possible consolidation of the extreme right in the country. After the CDU, the party most cited in voting intention polls is the AfD, an acronym considered extremist by the German government and security services itself.
Scholz needs to approve the 2025 Budget by the end of the year, as well as an aid package for Ukraine and the relaxation of the debt ceiling.
Last year, the coalition tried to use an additional $60 billion from a pandemic-related fund, but was blocked in court.
The limitation was inserted into the Constitution during the Angela Merkel administration (2005 to 2021), became a model in Europe, but is now seen as an obstacle to the country’s economic recovery, according to its critics.
Scholars also point to a long-term side effect of the rule, which would be to encourage populism. False or unenforceable promises are common in extremist discourse, which targets voters’ dismay caused by a lack of investment.
