The German Parliament accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s invitation to withdraw its confidence in him and his government on Monday, paving the way for a snap election on February 23 necessitated by the collapse of his government.
Scholz’s tripartite coalition fell apart last month after the pro-market Free Democrats abandoned the government in a dispute over debt, leaving the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens without a parliamentary majority, just as that Germany is facing an increasingly deep economic crisis.
Under rules designed to prevent instability like the one that facilitated the rise of fascism in the 1930s, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can dissolve Parliament and call an election only if the chancellor calls and loses a vote of confidence. The debate that preceded the vote also opened the campaign for the election, with party leaders exchanging bad-tempered barbs.
The chancellor and his conservative opponent, Friedrich Merz, who according to polls is likely to replace him, traded accusations of incompetence and lack of vision.
Scholz, who will head an interim government until a new one can be formed, defended his record as a leader in a crisis that had to deal with the economic and security emergency triggered by Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
If given a second term, he said he would invest heavily in Germany’s poor infrastructure rather than making the spending cuts he said conservatives want.
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“Myopia may save money in the short term, but it cannot pay the mortgage of our future,” said Scholz, who served four years as finance minister in a previous coalition with the Conservatives before becoming chancellor in 2021.
Merz told Scholz that his spending plans would burden future generations and accused him of failing to deliver on rearmament promises after the start of the war in Ukraine.
“Taking on debt at the expense of the young generation, spending money — and you didn’t say the word ‘competitiveness’ once,” Merz said.
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Neither mentioned the constitutional spending cap, a measure designed to ensure fiscal responsibility that many economists blame for the deteriorating state of Germany’s infrastructure.
CONSERVATIVES LEAD POLLS
The Conservatives have a comfortable, if 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, with the Greens in fourth place.
Traditional parties have refused to govern with the AfD, but their presence complicates parliamentary arithmetic, making the formation of unwieldy coalitions more likely.
