There is no vote of no confidence yet, but there is an election date. Early elections will be held in Germany on February 23rd to elect the new government. This morning, the German daily newspaper Spiegel, had noted that the SPD of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the CDU/CSU and the Greens had agreed on the date of the vote. The news was later confirmed by the CDU Secretary General Carsten Linnemannè, who spoke of a solid hypothesis and of an agreement reached between the SPD, CDU and the Greens.
According to forecasts, Scholz will ask the Bundestag for a vote of confidence on December 16. There is little doubt as to whether it will be rejected and at what point the Chancellor will resign. Under German law, the President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will have 21 days to dissolve the Bundestag and new elections must be held within 60 days of the closure of Parliament, even though the leader of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, and the leader of the SPD group Ralf Muetzenich, have already spoken to the president to propose the date of February 23. "The sooner we have a roadmap, the better. Our country needs a government that is able to function," said the head of state.
The summary of the previous episodes
Scholz had initially decided to appear in parliament for a vote of confidence on January 15, postponing the vote to March and taking advantage of the little time left to approve some measures he considered important for the economy. Pressured by the opposition, which had accused him of thinking only of himself and not of the good of a Germany already in recession, the chancellor has decided to speed up the process. "I'm not glued to my chair”, the chancellor said in a television interview on Sunday. “It is not a problem for me at all to ask for a vote of confidence before Christmas if everyone agrees,” he added, stressing that “I too am of the opinion that we should go to the polls as soon as possible.”
A few minutes ago, the leader of the Social Democrats in Parliament, Rolf Muetzenich, announced to journalists that "on December 16, at the beginning of the session of the week, the vote of confidence will be discussed and voted on".
An agreement seems to have been reached among the major German political parties on the calendar leading up to the general elections to be held on February 23, barring any dramatic backtracking.
After France, also Germany will therefore return to the polls very soon, after a very “fast” political crisis. The “bomb” had exploded last week, when Scholz has decided to oust Finance Minister Christian Lindner, leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which together with the Social Democrats (SPD) led by the Chancellor himself and the Greens, kept afloat the so-called "traffic light coalition" on which the government was based.
What the latest polls say
According to the latest survey conducted by Insa for Bild, the first after the government crisis, the Union (CDU-CSU) would be the first party with 32,5% (+0,5) of the preferences. It continues to grow the far right of the AfD, second with 19,5% (+1,5%), Only third Scholz's SPD, stuck at 15,5%. Immediately behind are the Greens with 11,5% (+1%). The exit from the executive has also made the liberals of the FDP gain something, returning to 5% (+0,5) above the threshold. The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, Bsw instead drops to 7% (-1%).
