Scholz says he is open to confidence vote idea

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has indicated he is willing to hold a parliamentary confidence vote before Christmas, as pressure builds for an accelerated timeline that could trigger snap elections.

The political crisis in Germany intensified after Scholz, of the Social Democrats, or SDP, last week dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner, of the liberal Free Democratic Party, or FDP, destabilizing the three-party coalition government of Europe's largest economy.

In an interview with ARD public television on Sunday, Scholz said: "It is no problem at all for me to call a vote of confidence before Christmas if everyone agrees."

After initially proposing a mid-January vote and March elections, Scholz has shifted his stance toward a swifter timeline.

"I am not glued to my post," he said. "And I simply say that I am in favor of this happening because I also want it to happen quickly. I don't want a new mandate from everyone else, but only from the citizens through a strong vote in favor of the SPD."

The chancellor is widely expected to lose a confidence vote, which would trigger snap elections, reported Germany's Deutsche Welle news network.

Political rivals are threatening to block the minority government from passing any laws until a confidence vote is called, reported AFP.

Amid ongoing disputes over economic and fiscal policy, Germany's so-called "traffic-light coalition" of Scholz's SDP, the liberal FDP, and the Greens, collapsed on Nov 6 when Lindner was fired.

Scholz emphasized his efforts to maintain the three-way alliance and rejected the notion he had somehow engineered the split.

"I did not provoke it," he said. "I tried until the very end to get things together. We managed a lot of little things but the real issue didn't go away. And that's why we've been discussing it all day long. And I think you have to be open and honest with the public about that. This is about wanting something that I certainly can't justify.

"I put up with the fact that I kept putting on a good face for the sake of compromise and cooperation, sometimes even playing a pretty nasty game. But when it's over, it's over.

"Without my repeated efforts to achieve cooperation and compromise, the government would not have lasted this long. It wouldn't even have been formed."

Once a confidence vote is called, Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will have 21 days to dissolve parliament, with elections due to be held within 60 days of the Bundestag's closure.