The German opposition calls for early elections at the beginning of the year

“The traffic light coalition is now history,” said Merz, “there is a lot of work to do in the country, important international conferences to attend, and we cannot afford the luxury of so many months with a blocked government.” “We are at the Chancellor’s disposal for talks,” Merz responded to the invitation that Chancellor Scholz himself made yesterday, just a few minutes after blowing up his Government, but without failing to emphasize that “there is more than enough time to convene now to the elections, so that the campaigns are prepared and to return institutional normality to Germany as soon as possible.

Merz is supported in this demand by all the CDU barons. “The government of Olaf Scholz has failed. He traffic light leaves behind a lot of broken pieces and unresolved tasks,” wrote, for example, the mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegnerin networks, «our country can no longer afford to continue down this path. “Our country needs new elections now.”

This electoral advance, with a call in January, would put an end to Scholz’s roadmap, who hoped to shore up his minority government until March, with the support of a liberal turncoat revealed at the last minute. After the dismissal of the Minister of Finance, Christian Lindnerwho took his Liberal Party (FDP), the leader of the FDP parliamentary group, by surprise last night, Christian Durrannounced at dawn that the four liberal ministers would withdraw en bloc from the “traffic light coalition.”

One of them, however, was receiving privately at that same time from the leadership of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), the express invitation to remain in the cabinet. This is the Minister of Transport, Volker Wissingwhich the chancellor wanted to continue counting on in the Government.

Early this morning, Wissing announced that he accepts that invitation and that, consequently, he is abandoning his FPD membership and will remain as an independent minister because he does not want to be “a burden” for the Liberals. “I am not distancing myself from the basic values ​​of my party,” he clarified in a brief statement, in which Wissing described this step as a “personal decision of mine, which corresponds to my idea of ​​assuming responsibility.”

Wissing recalled that in recent weeks he had repeatedly made his position clear on the continuity of the traffic light coalition and indirectly criticized the behavior of Lindner. Regarding the traffic light in the federal government, he has “disagreed with many things”, “especially not the way in which controversial positions are fought instead of building bridges.” Different positions are needed, but also a willingness to compromise, he said, “for me, that is the objective of politics.”

Also the CDU’s Bavarian younger sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), demands that Scholz call immediate elections. The regional president of Bavaria, Markus Soderhas invited a vote of confidence in the Bundestag to be submitted immediately. «Traffic lights are history. Now there is no time to waste,” he said, “Germany “It now needs new elections and a new government quickly and there should be no tactical delays.” The joint CDU/CSU parliamentary group has been meeting since eight in the morning to determine the new strategy, and the Presidium of both parties will discuss the new development in a meeting that begins at ten.

Regarding the extreme right of Alternative for Germany (AfD), which, according to current polls, would be the second most voted party if elections were held right now, greets the end of the traffic light as a “liberation for Germany.” The party has welcomed the breakdown of the coalition. “It should have happened much sooner, before leading the country into the economic abyss,” declared its leader, Alice Weidel“after months of stagnation and countless self-centered therapy sessions, we now quickly need a fundamental new political start to lift the economy and the entire country out of this serious crisis.”

The extreme left force, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) describes the schedule proposed by Scholz as a “political delay in insolvency” and criticizes that Scholz He should have taken advantage of last night “to apologize to citizens for the last three years.” “The fight for positions on the left of the center is underway, and that is good,” is the party’s position, “the left will advance from behind and bring a new left wind to the country, the party leaders have signed Ines Schwerdtner, Jan van Aken and the presidents of the Bundestag group, Heidi Reichinnek and Sören Pellmann.