“Scholz had previously asked Steinmeier to dissolve the Bundestag after a vote of no confidence in his government”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
Scholz had previously asked Steinmeier to dissolve the Bundestag following a vote of no confidence in his government under Article 68 of the German constitution, which requires new elections to be held within 60 days of a vote of confidence.
On November 12, the parliamentary leaders of the country’s largest political parties – the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Scholz and the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – reached an agreement on the schedule of the elections and agreed on the date of February 23.
The next elections in Germany were to be held in September 2025.
The agreement was reached after a week of wrangling in Berlin after Scholz fired his Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats (VDP) on November 6, leading to the party’s exit from the tripartite coalition that came to power in 2021. The Free Democrats’ exit – the result of months of bitter negotiations over the government’s proposed 2025 budget – left the chancellor without a majority in the Bundestag and effectively unable to govern the country.
This is only the fourth time since World War II that the Bundestag has been dissolved early.