German election: Scholz loses confidence vote

Now is the time for campaign season to kick off.

President Steinmeier is set to formally announce the dissolution of the Bundestag in the coming days.

Scholz's government remains a caretaker government. However, new treaties cannot be signed until a new government takes over.

Tomorrow, the opposition Christian Democrats are going to launch their party program. 

The party is led by Friedrich Merz, who is widely expected to become the next chancellor. 

Scholz's Social Democrats also look set to launch their party program in the afternoon.

Olaf Scholz did not show enough leadership during his tenure as German chancellor, the Greens' parliamentary group leader said on Monday.

"The long tugging and wrangling" over some legislative projects would have been avoidable "if our Chancellor Olaf Scholz had shown more leadership," Britta Hasselmann said after Monday's vote in the Bundestag.

The co-chair of the parliamentary group, Katharina Dröge, said the opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) was not ready for the snap election, penciled in for February 23.

As for policies, Dröge said that the Greens wanted to ensure "that the 49-euro ticket remains a 49-euro ticket."

The price of the ticket, which allows the holder to use public transport across many parts of Germany without extra charge, is set to increase to €58 in January.

After Monday's vote of no confidence, Olaf Scholz is no longer the chancellor of Germany as part of a minority coalition, but he does still act as the head of government.

However, both the government and the Bundestag will remain fully functional in terms of global issues in the transition phase until a new government is formed.

When Scholz was confirmed as the future chancellor in 2021, his predecessor Angela Merkel, while still in office, took the future German leader to international appointments, for example with US President Joe Biden.

There will likely be a weeks-long transition phase after the parliamentary elections until a new coalition government is agreed upon.

According to the latest polls, Friedrich Merz's CDU holds a lead of more than 10 points over Olaf Scholz's SPD, though the advantage has been narrowing recently.

The polls suggest Merz's CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), have a 32% share of the vote.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), led by Alice Wiedel, is slightly ahead of the SPD, while the Greens are in fourth place.

The mainstream parties have refused to govern with the AfD, but its presence complicates the parliamentary arithmetic, making unwieldy coalitions more likely.

Merz said he wants to see the CDU and the CSU be the strongest force in the Bundestag. 

"We can do that. We are doing well in the polls at the moment," he said. "But not as well as I see and think possible. However, an election campaign comes first from fighting and then from voting."

Scholz has traveled to Berlin's Bellevue Palace and proposed to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier that the Bundestag be dissolved. 

The president, Germany's head of state, will then have 21 days to decide whether to agree and to call a new election within 60 days. 

Steinmeier's approval is considered certain and he has already indicated that he agrees with the proposed election date of February 23.

However, it is expected that he will wait until after the Christmas holidays to make the decision, particularly as he first wants to hold talks with all parliamentary groups in the Bundestag.

Over the weekend, Steinmeier said he would not be hurried into making a decision.

"The hectic pace of daily politics and the beat of the media do not now dictate the procedure, but the constitution and its rules do," the German president told ARD.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's minority coalition government has lost a confidence vote, paving the way for new elections in February.

Some 394 lawmakers cast their votes against the government, with 207 voting in favor.

Another 116 abstained, leaving Scholz far short of the majority of 367 needed to win.

The confidence vote came after the Free Democrats (FDP) left the coalition government with Scholz's center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens following disputes over the budget.

Germany's Left Party and the left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) have accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) of failings in economic and foreign policy. 

Wagenknecht spoke of the "inglorious end" of a government that had noticeably worsened people's lives.

"Three years of decline for our country, and you are asking for a four-year extension," said Wagenknecht. 

The co-chair of the Left Party, Sören Pellmann, accused Scholz of having set in motion the "most violent arms race" in light of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Germany must "invest its way out of the crisis." Pellmann said, hitting out at tax rates for top earners: "This country does not need even richer billionaires."

The head of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, criticized Scholz's government for the state of the German economy.

"Your government was in power for just three years. Germans will have to deal with the damage that you caused in this time," she said during the debate in the Bundestag.

Weidel, who is running to become chancellor in next year's election, said that the economy had suffered due to "massive lacking investment" in the car industry while "the chemical industry is fleeing" due to "exploding energy costs."

She also had words for the Greens Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and the CDU's chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz.

Weidel accused Habeck of ruining the country and said that Merz would send Taurus missiles to Ukraine. Whoever votes for Merz "is voting for war," the far-right lawmaker said.

She also demanded that refugees from the war in Syria be sent home immediately, despite the continued uncertainty in the Middle Eastern country.

If German lawmakers decide to withdraw their support from Scholz, he will ask President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to dissolve parliament and call for early elections about seven months sooner than planned.

In his speech before the Bundestag, former Finance Minister Christian Lindner took the opportunity to attack the economic policies of the German chancellor.

In particular, the reduction in VAT on foodstuffs proposed by Scholz is unnecessary, the leader of the business-focused Free Democrats said.

Such a step would cost billions of euros but would not secure or create any jobs, he said.

"Prince Carnival may hand out candy on Rose Monday, but the Federal Republic of Germany must not be governed like this," said Lindner, likening the measure to a German tradition of candy being thrown to crowds from procession floats on the last Monday before Lent.

Lindner said Germany was in a worsening economic crisis and called for a political turnaround to prevent further economic decline.

"We must be honest and tell the citizens: Never in history has a society defended its prosperity, its social security and its sense of ecological responsibility by making less effort, by working less, by coming up with fewer ideas and by being less willing to take entrepreneurial risks," said Lindner.

Robert Habeck, Green vice chancellor and economy minister, took the podium shortly after opposition leader Merz called him the "face of the economic crisis" in Germany.

Habeck pointed to other countries in Europe that are currently without a government or being governed by shaky coalitions: France, Belgium, Austria, and the Netherlands. He said this highlighted not only that Germany needed to cease navel-gazing, but that "a new vote is not a guarantee that a new government will quietly and quickly get to work."

Like Scholz, he blamed the FDP for "being part of a government while simultaneously trying to destroy it."

Habeck said that Germany needed a government that was "ready to make compromises," which the current coalition did successfully for three years until the FDP decided to sabotage it.

He then slammed Merz's accusations that the SPD-led coalition had tanked the economy, citing the effects of the war in Ukraine and how the CDU under former Chancellor Angela Merkel had left Germany reliant on cheap Russian gas.

The vice chancellor called Merkels' decision a "grand historical mistake." Energy prices have soared in Germany as the country moved to pivot away from Russian gas quickly in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine.

Alluding mainly to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Habeck said that the "racism" of the right-wing in Germany was "the biggest threat" to the national economy, because it was keeping skilled migrants away.

The leader of the opposition CDU Friedrich Merz accused the ruling coalition of hypocrisy. He spoke ahead of a confidence vote over Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government. 

"The chancellor spoke a lot about respect, but it seems as though his respect ends where other political opinions begin," he said, before calling it "shameless" to have spoken so highly of his accomplishments but so badly of the FDP, who he said helped him achieve all of them.

He further asked why, if Scholz foresaw so much room for progress, the SPD hadn't accomplished any of it "in the 22 years of the last 26" when it was part of Germany's governing coalitions.

"Where were you for the last 22 years?" he asked.

Merz went on to criticize the funding of the military, the reaction to record-high inflation and an economic crisis, and Scholz's perceived lack of clarity and outspokenness on global issues over the last several years.

"You have brought shame on Germany" in front of the EU and other allies, Merz said.

He also praised the FDP for what he described as trying to prevent the ruling SPD and Greens from raising taxes. Arguments over the national budget played a major role over the collapse of Scholz's coalition.

Returning to the topic of the economy, Merz also implied that Germans do not work enough, citing neighboring Switzerland as a positive example, where people "work on average 200 hours more" a year. The conservative leader said that working more hours was necessary for "making Germany more competitive."

These statements were met with loud consternation by other lawmakers.

The beginning of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's speech felt like the official kick-off of the election campaign.

The political groups in the Bundestag had rallied their troops and coordinated their planned applause for this special session. During Scholz’s address, there was consistent applause only from his SPD group and individual members of the Greens, who form part of his government.

The business-friendly FDP, most of whose ministers were ousted by Scholz, kept their hands firmly on their desks.

Scholz highlighted many of Germany’s current weaknesses. Observers on the visitors’ benches made cynical comments, such as “Wait till he finds out who’s in charge.”

When Scholz’s strongest opponent, Friedrich Merz of the CDU, took the stage, the applause came from the other side of the plenary, mostly from the CDU/CSU. Judging by their clapping, many in the FDP still hope to form the next governing coalition with the Conservatives. Small caveat: They will need to get enough votes on February 23rd to make it into parliament first.

During his speech in the Bundestag ahead of a confidence motion, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for the value-added tax (VAT) rate on food products to drop from 7% to 5% amid the country's cost of living crisis.

He said that he wanted to raise Germany's minimum wage to €15 ($15.75).

"The world did not end when we introduced the minimum wage or when we raised it to €12," he said.

Scholz also called for the availability of daycare facilities to be greater so that more women could work full-time.

He pointed to Germany's labor shortage, calling for "more workers" and "more productivity."

Scholz said that there was no way to plug the labor shortage without migration.

He praised his coalition government's citizenship reform, which allowed for dual citizenship and faster naturalization.

"One in four of us has a migrant background," Scholz said. "We all make up Germany."

Chancellor Scholz said Germany needed "massive investment" to meet the future, particularly for self-defense.

"Today a highly armed nuclear power is waging war in Europe just two hours' flight from here. We must invest massively in our security and defense," he said, referencing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, he said, he would never "send German soldiers into that war," and not further inflame the conflict, likely a reference to rival Friedrich Merz's desire to send German Taurus missiles to Ukraine should his CDU emerge victorious in February's vote.

However, Scholz said, Germany would remain "Ukraine's strongest supporter in Europe...supporting Ukrainian sovereignty and ending all the death," that has come out of the conflict.