YEARS
The Chancellor said that his ‘Social Democrats’ and ‘Green’ party will remain in the minority government by the beginning of next year. However, Friedrich Merz of ‘Christian Democrats’, leader of the largest opposition group in Parliament, has called for voting on the no-confidence motion and holding elections.
November 6 was a day of changes for Europe. On one hand, Donald Trump won the United States presidential election. But at the same time Europe’s biggest economy was plunged into political turmoil as Scholze’s three-party coalition collapsed after months of infighting. Germany’s ruling coalition government reduced to minority. The dispute between the coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) became clearer when Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner. The rest of the liberals became angry with his decision and resigned from the cabinet. Nearly two-thirds of German voters want early elections after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition, the survey said.
The Chancellor said that his ‘Social Democrats’ and ‘Green’ party will remain in the minority government by the beginning of next year. However, Friedrich Merz of ‘Christian Democrats’, leader of the largest opposition group in Parliament, has called for voting on the no-confidence motion and holding elections. Scholz stressed that he did not want to hold a vote of confidence before January 15. The meeting between Merz and Scholz in the Chancellor’s office about the possible date of the next election ended in less than an hour, and Merz left without commenting on the talks. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced the removal of dismissed Finance Minister Lindner and two other ministers from the ‘Free Democrats’ party, Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.
The current coalition consists of the leftist ‘Social Democrats’ and the environmentalist ‘Green’ party. However, Merz vehemently rejected Scholz’s plan to seek a vote of confidence by January. Scholz’s government no longer has a majority in parliament, so he will likely lose the confidence vote. In that situation, the President of Germany can dissolve the Parliament within 21 days and hold elections in January itself. Lindner, of the pro-business ‘Free Democrats’ party, rejected tax increases or changes to strict self-imposed limits on borrowing. However, Scholz’s ‘Social Democrats’ and ‘Green’ parties want large-scale government investment and have rejected ‘Free Democrats’ proposals to cut welfare programs.
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