Scholz has been voted out of office. What will happen to Germany now?
16 December 2024 21:33
On December 16, the German parliament passed a motion of no confidence in the government of Olaf Scholz. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the press service of the Bundestag.
The majority of MPs voted in favor of this decision. Now President Steinmeier has to decide whether to dissolve the parliament and call elections. The president will have 21 days to make this decision.
The current government will continue to work until the early elections, which are likely to take place in late February.
Olaf Scholz himself spoke in the Bundestag before the confidence vote and accused his former coalition partners of sabotage.
“For three years, I have repeatedly united this coalition to achieve results and compromises. It takes a lot of effort. And in the end, my decision to terminate the coalition also required strength, because it could not go on. And I’m not just talking about the weeks of sabotage of the government by the VDP. The truth about this performance has now come to light,” Scholz said.
After this speech, the Prime Minister was criticized by the leaders of political parties. In particular, Alice Weidel, leader of the Alternative for Germany, said that after the “traffic light coalition”, Germans “will have to bear the brunt of the damage for several decades”.
It should be noted that the issue of trust has been raised by German chancellors five times in history. For example, in 1972, Willy Brandt used this tool to call new elections, after which his party achieved record results. In 2005, Gerhard Schroeder similarly initiated elections that led to a change of power in favor of Angela Merkel.
According to political analysts, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, may become the new chancellor. He lost to Angela Merkel more than 20 years ago for the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union and left politics for business, and after returning he lost twice more in the fight for the party leadership, but eventually became its leader in January 2022.
Political analyst Wolfgang Schroeder told the Financial Times:
“He is a real fighter. This is a man who desperately wants to become chancellor, who is burning with this desire. This is his life’s dream. And this is a necessary condition for such a position.”
