Following the collapse of Germany’s centre-left coalition, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is scheduled to meet opposition leader Friedrich Merz at the Chancellery on Thursday at noon to discuss the way forward until a new election.
Scholz plans to put the vote of confidence to the lower house, or Bundestag, on January 15 and then to call for an early federal election at the end of March.
Merz believes this is too late. He has urged Scholz to put forward the vote of confidence “no later than early next week” to enable an election in the second half of January.
“We simply cannot afford to have a government without a majority in Germany for several months now and then to conduct an election campaign for several more months, followed by potentially several weeks of coalition negotiations,” Merz said on Thursday morning.
“This needs to happen quickly. That’s why I will also ask the chancellor today at noon in a conversation to clear the way for this. And I will accordingly also present my arguments in a later conversation with the President [Frank-Walter Steinmeier].”
Scholz simultaneously reiterated that he intended to table the vote of confidence only on January 15. “The citizens will soon have the opportunity to decide anew how things should proceed. It is their right. Therefore, I will put forward the vote of confidence in the Bundestag at the beginning of next year.”
