German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed with the Social Democrats and the opposition (CDU) to hold early elections in February. As reported Reutersciting sources close to both parties, these elections would be called later than what the Christian Democrats had initially proposed and earlier than what the Social Democratic chancellor anticipated.
Initially, the idea was that the federal elections would be held on September 28. Although it is true that the final decision has to be made by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. But first, Olaf Scholz will have to face a motion of confidence before the Bundestag and the date is not yet known, but there is talk that the chancellor would like to present it in mid-January, although later it seems that the sources cited by several agencies speak of a date before Christmas.
In the event that the confidence motion goes ahead and Shcolz loses it, he can ask the president to dissolve Parliament and the elections should then be held within 60 days.
The locomotive of Europe is mired in enormous political uncertainty after last week Scholz dismissed his Finance Minister, Christian Lindner (Free Democratic Party), which meant the explosion of the traffic light coalition. The trigger was a loan of money to increase military support for Ukraine.
Added to this is that the German economy is very affected. With a very uncompetitive industry that is leading to practically zero growth in the country. Germany’s secondary sector has lagged behind due to high energy costs, weak global demand and growing competition from China. Germany’s export-based economic and industrial model is practically broken and Donald Trump’s recent victory adds even more fuel to the fire, as he proposes imposing 10% tariffs on products from Europe.
Last week, the data on manufacturing production for September was a bad surprise. The figures published by Destatis show that it fell 4.6% year-on-year and 2.5% compared to the previous month.
On the other hand, GDP growth in the third quarter was 0.2%, probably boosted by the good performance of the services sector, but these data in the industry could cause a downward revision, according to experts.
As reported Reutersciting internal sources from the parties, the Greens (coalition members) and the Liberals (FDP), until now also members of the Government coalition, would agree to hold the elections in mid-February. For his part, CDU leader Friedrich Merz changed his mind about calling elections in mid-January at internal party meetings.
The polls show Merz himself as the favorite for the chancellorship, which is probably why he would want to call the elections as soon as possible, so as not to give the Social Democrats room to campaign too much. In fact, last Sunday he assured that he was confident and that he could win the elections.
Even so, Scholz wants to leave office having approved several bills in Parliament before the new elections arrive but, without already having the majority of the coalition, he would have to request the support of the CDU.
It is possible that the CDU, having reached this electoral agreement, will support the legislative proposals of the current chancellor, especially Scholz’s plan to protect the Constitutional Court from the possible influence of the far-right AfD in the future.
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