German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hints at concessions on timing of confidence vote

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he may be prepared to bring forward a vote of confidence in his government, raising the possibility of an earlier snap election in the eurozone’s biggest economy.

Scholz had originally scheduled a vote of confidence for January 15, preparing for an election in March. But opposition parties say elections should be held as early as next week to avoid prolonged political uncertainty, which would take place in January.

Scholz on Wednesday fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner, leader of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), the alliance’s smallest party, ending a fragile three-party coalition government.

The move marked the climax of a long-running dispute within the coalition between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens on the one hand, and the FDP on the other, over the direction of economic policy.

Mr. Scholz now heads the SPD and the Green minority government after the FDP pulled the minister out of the cabinet.

Scholz suggested there may be flexibility on timing if the SPD and the Greens are able to reach an agreement with opposition parties, including the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the FDP, and pass pending legislation through parliament. did.

“It would be good if the democrats in the Bundestag can reach an agreement on what laws they can pass this year,” Scholz told reporters on the sidelines of an informal EU summit in Budapest on Friday. he said. “This agreement could provide an answer to the question of when is the right time to hold a vote of confidence.”

But he cautioned that setting an election date was not a “purely political” issue because the Federal Election Commission needed sufficient time to organize a “fair and democratic election.”

A spokesman for CDU leader Friedrich Merz noted that Scholz had not yet specified a date for the meeting and said he would only comment once the meeting had taken place.

Meanwhile, Green Party officials announced that Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Robert Habeck will announce on Friday that he will stand as the Green Party’s candidate for prime minister in the next election.

Mr. Haverbeck has long harbored ambitions to hold Germany’s top job, but stepped back in the last federal election in 2021 to allow Annalena Birbock to run as his party’s candidate.

However, Germany’s Foreign Minister Robert Birbock said in a July interview with CNN that Mr. Haveck had no intention of running for the top position again, paving the way for Mr. Haveck to run.

His candidacy must be approved at a Green Party conference in the West German city of Wiesbaden next week.

It is unlikely that Habeck will become prime minister. Support for the Green Party has been declining in recent months, with opinion polls showing it at 9-11%.

Merz said there was a “humorous side” to Habeck’s plan at a time when the party’s poll numbers were badly underperforming.

There were already some signs that Habeck was preparing to announce a bid. This week, six years after abandoning Twitter and Facebook, he reappeared on X.

“It’s easy to leave these places to the detractors and populists,” he wrote to X. Today is different. Not this week. That is not the case at this time. That’s why I came back to X. ”

Another post by X shows Habeck editing text, with a calendar in the background with November 8th marked in red.

The origin of Habaek is “Realo” or the realistic wing of the Green Party. As deputy prime minister, he was involved in policies that were unacceptable to other Greens, such as tighter immigration controls.

He is considered a talented orator. But his reputation has been tarnished by controversy over legislation pushed through by the ministry aimed at phasing out gas and oil-fired boilers and replacing them with heat pumps run on renewable energy. Many saw this as an unwarranted intrusion into their private sphere.