German coalition collapses, Scholz ignores calls for snap election – National
After the collapse of Germany’s coalition government when Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats, Scholz said he would lead the country in a minority government, despite calls from opposition leaders on Thursday for early elections.
The chancellor said that a minority government will be formed by the Social Democrats and the Greens until the beginning of next year – as the leader of the main opposition party in parliament, Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats, called for an immediate halt. vote of confidence and new elections.
Scholz reiterated on Thursday, that he does not want to call a vote of confidence before Jan. 15.
“Citizens will soon have the opportunity to decide again how to proceed,” the chancellor said, according to German news agency dpa. “That is their right. I will therefore put a vote of confidence in the Bundestag early next year. “
A meeting with Merz and chancellor Scholz at noon on Thursday about a possible date for the next election ended less than an hour later with Merz leaving without commenting on the discussions.
Later on Thursday, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave sacked Finance Minister Lindner and two other Free Democrats officials who had resigned – Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann – their certificates of dismissal.
The Minister of Transport, Mr. Volker Wissing, who is also from the Free Democrats, said that after discussions with Scholz, he decided to continue in office rather than leave the party. Scholz asked him to add the justice department to his portfolio.
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Steinmeier also appointed Jörg Kukies, an economic adviser to Scholz, as finance minister. Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir from the Greens agreed to take over the research ministry.
Scholz announced late Wednesday that he would seek a vote of confidence on January 15, which he said could lead to an early election, possibly as soon as March. The vote was supposed to be voted on in another way next September.
After firing his finance minister, the chancellor accused Lindner of breaching his trust and publicly called for a completely different economic policy, including what Scholz said would be tax cuts costing billions to a few high earners while at the same time slashing pensions for all retirees. .
“That’s not fair,” Scholz said.
The chancellor hopes that his minority government – Scholz’s Social Democrats and his remaining coalition partner, the environmentalist Greens – will get the support of Merz’s Christian Democrats in parliament in the coming weeks, to pass important legislation and close the billion-euro hole. in the 2025 budget.
However, Merz on Thursday rejected Scholz’s plan to wait to hold a vote of confidence until January.
“The coalition no longer has a majority in the German Bundestag, so we are asking the chancellor … to call a vote of confidence immediately, or as early as next week,” Merz said.
“We cannot have a government without a majority in Germany for a few months now, then we campaign for a few more months, then we hold coalition talks for a few weeks,” Merz added.
Since Scholz’s government no longer has a majority in parliament, it is likely to lose the vote. In that case, the German president could dissolve parliament within 21 days and snap elections would be held immediately in January.
“In these 21 days, we will have enough time to find out if there are any problems that we may have to solve together,” said Merz, offering his party’s cooperation with the minority government. “Yes, we are ready to hold talks … we are also ready to bear the responsibility of our country.”
Achim Wambach from the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research doubts that a long period of minority government would help the German economy recover.
“Germany’s problems are too big to tolerate political congestion,” the analyst said.
“The government is determined to reconcile the transition toward climate neutrality with economic growth and social security,” Wambach said. “It has not reached this request. The economy stagnates and investment fails to materialize.”
“This difficult task is combined with the country’s economic tensions: wars in Europe and the Middle East and destructive economic interventions through tariffs and national subsidy policies,” he added. “The election of Donald Trump has added to these problems. Europe must do more to protect itself and will have to face more costs. “
The collapse of the union comes after weeks of fighting between the unions over the issue of how to improve the country’s economy.
Lindner’s corporate Free Democrats have rejected tax increases or changes to Germany’s strict debt-servicing limits. The Social Democrats and the Greens of Scholz wanted to see greater state investment and rejected the proposals of the Free Democrats to reduce social programs.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
