Following the collapse of Germany’s centre-left coalition, Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet opposition leader Friedrich Merz at the Chancellery at noon on Thursday to discuss the way forward to new elections.
Scholz plans to submit the vote of confidence to the Lower House, the Bundestag, on January 15 and then call early federal elections at the end of March.
Merz thinks this is too late. He has urged Scholz to submit the motion of confidence “at the beginning of next week” at the latest, so that elections can be held in the second half of January.
“We simply cannot afford to have a government without a majority in Germany for a few months now and then to conduct an election campaign for a few more months, followed by possibly several weeks of coalition negotiations,” Merz said on Thursday morning.
“This has to happen quickly. That is why I will also ask the Chancellor in a conversation today at noon to pave the way for this. And I will also make my arguments accordingly in a later conversation with the President. [Frank-Walter Steinmeier].”
Scholz at the same time reiterated that he intended not to submit the motion of confidence until January 15. “Citizens will soon have the opportunity to decide again how things should proceed. It is their right. That is why I will put forward the vote of confidence in the Bundestag early next year.”
