Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz loses confidence vote, paving way for election
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a no-confidence vote Monday in the country's Parliament, paving the way for a snap election in February next year.
Confidence votes in Germany are relatively rare. It was called after the nation's three-party governing coalition collapsed amid infighting over how to modernize and boost the European Union's largest economy.
Scholz needed 396 votes in Germany's Parliament, known as the Bundestag. He got 207. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has 21 days to decide whether to dissolve Parliament, a move he's widely expected to do. The dissolving of parliament is a formality. The process eventually leads to new elections, which are expected Feb. 23.
Political turmoil and dysfunction at the heart of Europe is also taking place in France, where President Emmanuel Macron recently appointed his fourth prime minister in a year, prompted by disputes over budget cuts, tax increases and clashing centrist, right- and left-wing visions over how to mend France's divided society.
Scholz has been Germany's chancellor since late 2021, replacing conservative Angela Merkel, who spent 16 years in the role. But because no single party secured a majority in the Bundestag, Scholz's center-left Social Democrats formed a progressive governing coalition with the Greens, an environmentalist party led by Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, and Christian Lindner’s pro-business Free Democrats.
The ambitious coalition has failed to find a way forward on some key issues, notably how to resurrect Germany’s shrinking economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, war in Ukraine and competition from China. Scholz removed Lindner from his role as minister of finance in early November.
Moritz Schularick, a political scientist at the German research organization Kiel Institute for the World Economy, said President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House in January is likely to mean fresh economic challenges for Germany. "In addition to the domestic structural crisis, the country now faces massive foreign trade and security policy challenges for which we are not prepared. Trump's economic policy measures are likely to include protectionist tariffs and import restrictions, which will put further pressure on growth in Germany and Europe."
There had been only five confidence votes in Germany's postwar history. Scholz's is the sixth.
Far-right parties have made gains in recent European elections from Italy to France, from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands. Germany's far-right populist Alternative for Germany, or AfD, scored wins in recent state elections but it is too early to know whether the party will be able to turns those gains into an elevated platform at the national level.
Some polls suggest AfD could become the second-largest party after the so-called Union parties, a center-right Christian democratic and conservative political grand alliance presided over by Merkel when she was chancellor.