President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday dissolved the lower house of Germany’s parliament to pave the way for early elections on February 23 following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition.
“Especially in difficult times, like now, stability requires a government capable of acting and reliable majorities in parliament,” so early elections were the right path for Germany, Steinmeier said in Berlin.
After the elections, problem solving must once again be the central task of politics, Steinmeier added in a speech.
The president, whose position has been largely ceremonial in the postwar era, also called for the election campaign to be conducted fairly and transparently.
“External influence is a danger to democracy, whether covert, as was evidently the case recently in the Romanian elections, or open and blatant, as is currently practiced with particular intensity on the (social media) platform X,” he stated.
Scholz, a Social Democrat who will lead a caretaker government until a new one can be formed, lost a vote of confidence in parliament earlier this month after the Free Democrats’ departure of Finance Minister Christian Lindner left his uneasy coalition of government without a legislative majority.
The vote also kicked off the election campaign in earnest, with conservative rival Friedrich Merz, who polls show will likely replace Scholz, claiming the incumbent government had imposed excessive regulations and stifled growth.
The conservatives maintain a comfortable lead of more than 10 points over the Social Democrats (SPD) in most polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is slightly ahead of the SPD, while coalition partner the Greens are in fourth place.
The main parties have refused to govern with the AfD, but its presence complicates parliamentary arithmetic, making the formation of unstable coalitions more likely.
