Germany sets snap elections for February 23 after fall of Scholz government

After last week’s collapse of the coalition government, Germany is heading towards early parliamentary elections to be held They will celebrate on February 23. This is the date agreed by the parliamentary groups of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The agreement comes after days of disputes over the date, which It still needs to be ratified by the president of the country, Frank-Walter Stienmeier. He is the only one who can dissolve Parliament, but only after the current chancellor, the the social democrat Olaf Scholzsubmits to a motion of confidence and loses it, as one would expect because he does not have a sufficient majority in the Bundestag.

For now, the confidence motion is expected to have takes place on December 16as he progresses The Spiegel.Scholz had initially proposed presenting the motion of confidence in January, so that the elections could take place in March. However, opposition leader and favorite for chancellor, Christian Democrat Friederich Merz, is pushing for move the process forward and go to the polls in January.

The collapse of the German tripartite, known as the traffic light coalition by the color of the parties (red for the Social Democrats, yellow for the Liberals and green for the party of the same name), rushed last Wednesday.

That day, as the world reacted to Donald Trump’s victory in the United States, German Chancellor rejected to his Minister of Financeliberal leader Christian Lindner, for disagreements on economic issues. “For betraying their trust,” he said.

And after months of disputes over the measures needed to promote a change of course in the German economy – which should lead this year to a recession for the second year in a row – the two leaders failed to agree on 2025 budgets.