With pressure from opposing parties, the German government did not follow in France’s footsteps and held the elections for the second half of 2025.
Following the results of the elections for the European Parliament, Germany, unlike what was announced by France, ruled out the possibility of dissolving the parliament and bringing forward the elections. The German government spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, declared this Monday (June 10, 2024) that the election remains scheduled for the 2nd half of 2025, as planned.
The decision was taken even after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD (center-left Social Democratic Party) had recorded its worst performance in the history of elections for the European Parliament, with just 14% of the votes. The AfD (right-wing Alternative for Germany) obtained around 16% of the vote, while the CDU-CSU (center-right) coalition, led by former Chancellor Angela Merkel, led with approximately 30%. The Greens and the Liberal Party, from the governing coalition, won 12% and 5% of the votes, respectively. The information is from Deutsche Welle.
The result provoked calls from opposition parties for Scholz to follow the example of French President Emmanuel Macron, who announced on Sunday (June 9, 2024) the call for new parliamentary elections in the country for June 30 (1st round) and 7 July (2nd round). “The election date is next autumn, as planned, and we intend to see this through to the end”said Hebestreit, who also highlighted the different political systems of Germany and France.
The German government’s intransigence bothered opposition parties. Alice Weidel, one of the leaders of the AfD, said that Germany “eliminated the chancellor” and the government at the polls. “Now there is only one task left for Scholz: to pave the way for new elections instead of governing for another year against a large majority of the population”, wrote Weidel on his X profile.
The leader of the conservatives in the state of Bavaria, Markus Söder, also called for the country to follow in France’s footsteps. The tripartite coalition “he no longer has the support of the population.”Söder told the German broadcaster RTL.
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