Germany’s main parties agree to hold snap elections in February

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Germany will hold snap elections on February 23, under a new plan agreed on Tuesday by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats with the main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union.

Under the deal, Scholz will table a confidence vote in his government on December 16, according to a person familiar with the matter. He had originally planned to hold it a month later, but came under pressure from the opposition to speed up the process.

However, a CDU official cautioned that it was the German president who sets the date for elections, not the parties. “In the end, he alone decides,” the person said.

The German government collapsed last Wednesday after Scholz sacked his finance minister, Christian Lindner, marking the climax of a long-running dispute over the direction of economic policy.

Scholz moved against Lindner after the latter rejected his demand to suspend Germany’s “debt brake”, its constitutionally anchored cap on new borrowing, to allow more aid for Ukraine.

With the departure of Lindner’s party, the pro-business Free Democrats, Scholz now heads a minority government with the Greens.

When he announced Lindner’s dismissal, Scholz proposed a confidence vote on January 15 and elections in March.

But CDU leader Friedrich Merz insisted the election be held earlier, saying Germany could not afford a long period of political uncertainty.

In a TV interview on Sunday evening, Scholz showed flexibility on the timing issue, saying he had “no problem” holding the confidence vote before Christmas, rather than in January.

The February 23 vote means that Germany will go to the polls seven months earlier than scheduled. Scholz, who polls suggest has little hope of being re-elected, will be one of the shortest-serving chancellors in Germany’s postwar history.