Asking the question of trust in the hope of losing it. This is the exercise that Olaf Scholz will undertake this Monday, December 16. The German chancellor has led a minority government since the beginning of November after the liberals left his coalition. A negative vote today should allow a dissolution of Parliament and the organization of early elections scheduled for February 23.
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With our correspondent in Berlin, Pascal Thiebaut
Without a majority, the chancellor Olaf Scholz can no longer hope to have texts adopted in Parliament. To put an end to this situation, the constitution German provides only one method: a lost vote of confidence which allows the chancellor to ask the President of the Republic to dissolve the Bundestag. This is the same method used by another social democratic chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, in 2005.
” I do not rule out that Olaf Scholz could still win this election”
A little over two months before the election, Olaf Scholz leaves with a serious handicap. The chancellor is unpopular and his party, the SPD, is about 15 points behind the Christian Democrats in the polls. Their president Friedrich Merz is the favorite to become the next chancellor. But political scientist Julia Reuschenbach believes that it is too early to bury the title holder. “ I do not exclude that Olaf Scholz could still win this election. He has always been underestimated. We saw this during the 2021 elections. Three months before the election, his party obtained 14% in the polls. Everyone said the SPD was finished; and upon arrival he was elected chancellor. »
The Greensstill allies of Olaf Scholz, must abstain this afternoon. Only the Social Democrats should vote for confidence in the Chancellor who should therefore lose it. The suspense is thin. The parties are already in full preparations for the elections on February 23. Socialists and Christian Democrats must present their respective programs tomorrow.
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