In the immediate aftermath of Donald J. Trump’s victory in the American Presidential Election, the German governing coalition collapsed when Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired Finance Minister Lindner from the FPD party over irreconcilable differences about an economic plan.
Without FDP support, Scholz has to call for a vote of confidence to try to lead a minority government, which he is widely expected not to get – let’s remember he is the least popular German Chancellor in recorded history.
When he loses the confidence vote, early elections will be called.
The thing is: Scholz wants to delay this process until next year, a move that generated strong reactions both from the opposition and from inside his own crumbling coalition.
Now, it arises that Chancellor Scholz ‘could’ hold a vote of confidence sooner than he planned.
That’s what he revealed yesterday night, as Politico reported:
“In a televised interview with ARD journalist Caren Miosga, the chancellor said a confidence vote before Christmas was possible: ‘If everyone sees it that way, it’s not a problem’.”
Scholz originally wanted the confidence vote in his government to be held only in January, and the ‘snap’ election in March.
Now, even politicians from Scholz’s coalition are publicly calling for him to bring the date forward.
“’What the chancellor has in mind is not a good idea’, Green lawmaker Anton Hofreiter, who chairs Germany’s EU affairs committee, told BILD. ‘Olaf Scholz should ask for a vote of confidence in December so that everything can be clarified before Christmas and the New Year.’”
Scholz wants to have these months to ram through legislation to have any chance in the upcoming election.
The opposition has been strident in their calls for early elections, especially Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz.
He repeatedly called on Scholz to schedule an immediate confidence vote, accusing him of “clinging” to power.
Scholz says that to hold the vote as soon as possible ‘It’s not all that simple’.
“He also said his Social Democratic Party (SPD) has a “good chance” of winning a new election. The SPD currently trails the CDU by 17 points in the polls, according to BILD.
To force Scholz from office, rather than waiting for the chancellor to seal his own fate with a confidence vote he would likely lose, Merz would need votes from far-right or far-left parties.”
Scholz is so unpopular that, unlike France’s Macron, Italy’s Meloni or UK’s Starmer, he still hasn’t managed to talk to Trump on the phone.
“When asked about the challenges of dealing with Trump, Scholz said: ‘I am never naive, but I am also fearless’, adding: ‘We dance with whomever is in the room’. He said he expects that ‘the most powerful democracy in the world” will continue to be Germany’s partner’.”
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