Confidence vote is the only item on the agenda at the Bundestag session
The Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, has one item on the agenda for today’s session: a vote of confidence. Chancellor Olaf Scholz opened the way for new elections on February 23 by firing his Finance Minister Christian Lindner last month, forcing Lindner’s pro-business Free Democrats to leave the government, losing their majority.
The dramatic development came after months of infighting over fiscal priorities and ideological differences that ultimately became too much for Germany’s first three-way federal coalition to bear. The centre-left Social Democrats and ecologist Greens will continue to run the EU’s top economy until a new government is formed, possibly in the spring.
major events
Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz, who is expected to replace Scholz as Germany’s next chancellor after February’s election, began his rebuttal speech by telling Scholz not to immediately call for confidence after the collapse of the government last month. Was Needed. “I can describe today as a day of relief,” he said of the impending vote.
Concluding, Scholz strikes a positive note after a disappointing political season: “There is a lot of good in our country,” he said. “We are a country that goes to work every day, a country that sticks together and puts solidarity over division, a country whose best days are not behind it but ahead of it.”
Scholz, who has campaigned on a pledge to be a “peace chancellor” against leading Merz’s more aggressive approach toward Russia, again stressed his opposition to sending long-range Taurus missiles or German troops into Ukraine.
Scholz is clearly using the Bundestag speech as a campaign rally. He has repeatedly condemned his former coalition partner, the Free Democrats, and blamed them for the collapse of the government with “weeks-long sabotage”. Noting their deep differences on fiscal policy, Scholz stressed the need for government spending to address the economic downturn. “Not everyone in the coalition saw it that way,” he said. “If there’s any country in the world that can afford to invest, it’s us.” He urges “modernization” of the debt brakes that curb state investment.
Scholz faces continued pushback from the opposition in the chamber, with his main rival, Friedrich Merz, sitting on the front row of the center-right CDU/CSU group. The Chancellor angrily tries to command his rivals: “We are grateful to the decency and seriousness of the citizens.”
‘My goal is to hold early general elections,’ says Scholz.
“My goal is to hold an early general election,” says Scholz. He said his goal is to increase confidence in the country’s future by ensuring prosperity and security. “We need more economic growth.”
Scholz also cited the need for investment to continue supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression while funding the German military. “No voter could have anticipated the challenges we have faced over the last three years.”
Scholz began by noting that this was the sixth time in the post-war period that a chancellor has called a vote of confidence. He is the fifth chancellor to do so, after fellow Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder used the measure twice.
As the session began with a loud buzzer echoing through the glass-domed chamber, Scholz was beaming. He is talking to his Social Democrat cabinet ministers when Speaker Barbel Baas takes the stage.
Scholz can expect to lose today’s vote, which will affect the planned sequence of events.
However there is speculation that the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party may try to campaign for new elections to create chaos. If enough AfD lawmakers voted for Scholz in a vote of confidence, it could support his minority government against his wishes. To prevent this, the Bundestag requires MPs to vote by name, allowing each to be put on record with their stated preference.
And the leaders of the parliamentary group of the Greens, the junior partner in the government, have advised their members to abstain from voting, while the centre-right CDU/CSU and FDP will vote against Scholz, virtually ensuring that they will not get a majority. will get.
Scholz hopes a majority of MPs will vote against him to pave the way for a February general election
Scholz, who is deeply unpopular, will open the session at 1pm CET with a brief speech outlining his reasons for calling the confidence motion. he will be fifth chancellor Angela Merkel was a rare exception to never using the measure – set out in Article 68 of Germany’s Basic Law – despite being in power for 16 years despite multiple crises since the Second World War. After this there will be a debate of about 90 minutes.
If everything goes according to Scholz’s plan, a majority of MPs will vote against Scholz and he can go to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Bellevue Palace in central Berlin, and recommend that the head of state resign to the current Bundestag. Disband and clear the way for a general. Election. Steinmeier will have 21 days to make his decision, during which he will consult with the leaders of the various parliamentary groups. If he agrees to dissolve the Bundestag, elections would have to be held within 60 days, paving the way for the February 23 vote.
Confidence vote is the only item on the agenda at the Bundestag session
The Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, has one item on the agenda for today’s session: a vote of confidence. Chancellor Olaf Scholz opened the way for new elections on February 23 by firing his Finance Minister Christian Lindner last month, forcing Lindner’s pro-business Free Democrats to leave the government, losing their majority.
The dramatic development came after months of infighting over fiscal priorities and ideological differences that ultimately became too much for Germany’s first three-way federal coalition to bear. The centre-left Social Democrats and ecologist Greens will continue to run the EU’s top economy until a new government is formed, possibly in the spring.
I’m Deborah Kohl, one of the Guardian’s two Berlin correspondents, and I’ll be guiding you through today’s historic vote of confidence in the Bundestag on Olaf Scholz’s three-year-old government. In Sunday’s Observer, Europe correspondent John Henley and I took a look at the high risks of political turmoil in two EU powers, Germany and France, and how they might emerge from it. For Germany, this is the first step.