BERLIN (Reuters) – President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved Germany’s lower house of parliament on Friday to pave the way for early elections on Feb. 23 after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s triple coalition.
“Especially in difficult times like now, stability requires a government capable of acting and a reliable majority in parliament,” making early elections the right way forward for Germany, Steinmeier said in Berlin.
After the election, problem solving must once again become the core business of politics, Steinmeier added in his speech.
The president, whose duty in the post-war period was mainly ceremonial, also called for a fair and transparent conduct of the election campaign.
“External influence is a danger to democracy, whether it is covert, as was clearly the case recently in the elections in Romania, or open and obvious, as is currently practiced particularly intensively on the X (social media) platform,” he said.
Scholz, a Social Democrat who will lead an interim government until a new one is formed, lost a confidence vote in parliament earlier this month after Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s Free Democrats left his unwieldy ruling coalition without a legislative majority.
The vote also kicked off the election campaign in earnest, with conservative challenger Friedrich Merz, who polls show is likely to replace Scholz, arguing that the current government has imposed excessive regulations and stifled growth.
In most polls, the conservatives have a comfortable lead of more than 10 points over the Social Democrats (SPD). The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is slightly ahead of the SPD, while the Greens, a coalition partner, are in fourth place.
The main parties have refused to govern with the AfD, but its presence complicates parliamentary arithmetic, making shaky coalitions more likely.
