By Thomas Escritt
BERLIN (Reuters) -Chancellor Olaf Scholz will call on Germany’s parliament on Monday to declare it has no confidence in him, taking the first formal step towards securing an early national election following his government’s collapse.
The departure last month of the neoliberal Free Democrats from the three-way coalition left Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens governing without a parliamentary majority just when Germany faces its deepest economic crisis in a generation.
Scholz remains as caretaker leader until a new government can be formed after the planned Feb. 23 election, and already the campaign is turning to arguments over which urgent measures he should pass with opposition backing before then.
Rules drawn up to prevent the series of short-lived and unstable governments that played an important role in helping the Nazis rise to power in the 1930s means that the path to new elections is long and largely controlled by the chancellor.
“I hope we will follow tradition and get a stable government within a reasonable time frame,” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
The president’s role is largely ceremonial but includes dissolving parliament and formally calling an election, on the chancellor’s advice, after the loss of a no-confidence vote.
Scholz has outlined a list of urgent measures that could pass with opposition support before the election, including 11 billion euros ($11.55 billion) of tax cuts and an increase in child benefits already agreed on by former coalition partners. Measures to tackle fiscal drag – the tendency of inflation to shift taxpayers into higher tax brackets – and high energy prices look less certain.
ARGUMENTS
“We’re only going to discuss proposals that must urgently be dealt with,” said senior conservative legislator Thorsten Frei.
The conservatives, far ahead in the polls under their leader Friedrich Merz, have hinted they could back measures to better protect the Constitutional Court from the machinations of a future populist or anti-democratic government and to extend a popular subsidised transport ticket.
“Important decisions need to be made that are being blocked by the opposition,” SPD co-chair Saskia Esken told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. “We’re still waiting on energy price cuts. Friedrich Merz should move on this.”
The outcome of Monday’s vote is not entirely certain. Scholz’s SPD is likely to signal it still has confidence in the chancellor, while opposition conservatives and the Free Democrats are expected not to.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, with whom all other parties refuse to work, could surprise legislators by voting that they do have confidence in Scholz.
If both the SPD and the Greens also back Scholz, that would leave him in the awkward position of remaining in office with the support of a party that he rejects as anti-democratic. In that case, most observers expect he would resign, which itself would trigger an election.
To prevent that scenario, many legislators expect the Greens to abstain.
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