German Chancellor Scholz loses confidence vote, paving way for snap election on February 23

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday lost the confidence vote, paving the way to a snap election on 23 February.

According to The Guardian report, of the 717 votes tallied, 207 gave Scholz their confidence, 394 did not and 116 abstained.

Scholz had required 367 confidence votes to “win” the ballot.

“We have reached the end of our daily agenda, and also of the traffic light coalition,” The Guardian quoted the speaker of the Bundestag, Bärbel Bas, using the nickname of the now defunct three-way coalition, as saying.

Scholz smiled at the outcome and shook hands with Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck. He will now head to Bellevue Palace in Berlin to request that President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolve parliament and call for a general election.

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Scholz initiated the vote on Monday, expecting to lose, but saw it as the best strategy to rejuvenate his party’s political position.

This follows the breakdown of Scholz’s three-party coalition government two months ago, leaving him to lead a minority administration.

Earlier in a speech to Parliament, Scholz said he aims to shore up trust in the future of the country by ensuring prosperity and security.

“It is my goal to call an early general election. We need more economic growth,” he said.

Scholz said Germany needs “massive” investment, especially in defence.

“Today a highly armed nuclear power is waging war in Europe just two hours’ flight from here. We must invest massively in our security and defence,” Scholz said.

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Scholz framed the snap election as an opportunity for voters to set a new course for Germany, casting it as a choice between a future of higher investment and one of cuts that he said the conservatives were promising.

Scholz, who served as finance minister for four years in a previous coalition with the conservatives before becoming head of a new government in 2021, accused other parties of wanting to block the investments Germany needed.

“Shortsightedness might save money in the short term, but the mortage on our future is unaffordable,” Reuters quoted him as saying to lawmakers.

Germany’s conservative opposition leader, who is expected to succeed Scholz as Germany’s next chancellor after the February election, said Scholz should have immediately called the confidence vote after the government’s collapse last month.

“I can describe today as a day of relief,” The Guardian quoted him as saying of the imminent vote.

Merz blamed the country’s economic troubles on Scholz’s outgoing coalition government.

Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck was “the face of the economic crisis”, said Merz, who charged that Scholz had left the country in “one of the biggest economic crises of the postwar era”.

Merz who was clearly in campaign mode, pushed back against hecklers in the chamber and laid into Scholz and his government’s record.

“Olaf Scholz was not able to lead the coalition successfully as chancellor,” The Guardian quoted Merz as saying, noting that the three parties “by the end didn’t belong together at all”.

The conservative opposition leader said that Scholz’s deficient leadership qualities undermined Germany’s place on the European stage.

“It is embarrassing how you acted in the European Union,” he added.

Scholz remains as caretaker leader until a new government can be formed after the planned February 23 election, and already the campaign is turning to arguments over which urgent measures he should pass with opposition backing before then.

Rules drawn up to prevent the series of short-lived and unstable governments that played an important role in helping the Nazis rise to power in the 1930s means that the path to new elections is long and largely controlled by the chancellor.

With inputs from agencies