Germany set for snap election in February

By Sebastian Shukla, Claudia Otto and Inke Kappeler, CNN

(CNN) — Germany is set to hold a snap election on February 23 after an agreement was reached among parties in the country’s fractured parliament on Tuesday.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) said that the main parties had agreed on the date for a snap election. The official announcement was made by Rolf Mützenich, group leader of the SPD, in Berlin.

Mützenich said that Scholz will officially announce a vote of confidence in the government on December 11, followed by a vote five days later. Should the government fail to win the backing of parliament – an outcome that is widely expected – President Frank-Walter Steinmeier would confirm a date for the election.

Earlier on Tuesday, Steinmeier said that “our country needs a government that is capable of taking action.”

“That is why we must not lose any time now. We must find answers to the question of how we can make our state better able to act,” Steinmeier added.

Last week, Germany’s governing coalition collapsed after disagreements over the country’s weak economy led Scholz to sack his finance minister, leaving him in a minority government with the Green Party.

Scholz initially announced that he planned to hold a confidence vote on January 15, but he came under immediate pressure from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) opposition party to hold them earlier.

Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU, said last week, “there is absolutely no reason to wait until January” to call the confidence vote.

Scholz’s position on the date seemed to shift over the weekend. On Friday, he tweeted that he would “like to facilitate new elections as soon as possible.” Then, on Sunday evening, he told German TV that he would be willing to call the confidence vote before Christmas.

Scholz is currently leading a minority government with the Greens. His government has grown increasingly unpopular in Germany, with Scholz also one of the least popular chancellors ever, according to a September opinion poll.

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