Germany on course to hold snap election in February

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has lost a confidence vote, putting the European Union’s most populous member and biggest economy on course to hold an early election in late February.

- GEIR MOULSON

Mr Scholz won the support of 207 MPs in the 733-seat lower house, or Bundestag, while 394 voted against him and 116 abstained. That left him far short of the majority of 367 needed to win.

Mr Scholz leads a minority government after his unpopular and notoriously rancorous three-party coalition collapsed in November when he dismissed his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalise Germany’s stagnant economy. Leaders of several major parties then agreed that a parliamentary election should be held on 23 February, seven months earlier than originally planned.

The confidence vote was needed because post-Second World War Germany’s constitution does not allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election. He has 21 days to make that decision and, because of the planned timing of the election, is expected to do so after Christmas. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days.