German Chancellor Scholz loses confidence vote, snap elections to follow

BERLIN -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost in a vote of confidence in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, on Monday.

The move would dissolve Scholz's minority coalition government and trigger a process that would lead to early federal elections.

The confidence vote saw 207 parliament members expressing confidence in Scholz, with 394 voting against him and 116 abstaining.

Such a vote has not taken place in Germany for almost two decades.

Scholz had requested the confidence vote last week, invoking Article 68 of the Basic Law, as the currently only viable way to trigger early elections. Major opposition parties have long been calling for this.

Although theoretically, Scholz could have continued in office without a majority, it would have been politically untenable as the Bundestag would have been unable to pass legislation.

Concerns had arisen that Scholz could unexpectedly win the vote. This scenario could have materialized if members of Scholz's SPD and the Greens voted in favor, while the AfD voted to support him to create chaos.

To prevent this possibility of unintended support from the AfD's 76 members potentially pushing Scholz over the required 367 votes, the Green party leadership advised its members to abstain.

The regular federal elections were originally scheduled for September next year. However, the so-called "traffic light coalition" of the SPD, Greens, and FDP failed to agree on a joint budget for 2025. Disagreements arose over tax allocation, economic stimulus measures, and funding for investment.

At the height of the dispute, Chancellor Scholz dismissed FDP's Finance Minister Christian Lindner; subsequently, other FDP ministers resigned from the government to withdraw from the ruling coalition.

After losing the confidence vote, Scholz went to meet with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, recommending the dissolution of the Bundestag.

Steinmeier has 21 days to decide whether to dissolve the parliament. He had previously stated that he would likely do so.

If the Bundestag is dissolved, new elections must be held within 60 days. The SPD and CDU/CSU have proposed Feb 23 as the date for the election. Steinmeier will ultimately decide the final date.

Even after the dissolution of the Bundestag, the parliament remains functional. The Federal Chancellor, the government, and its ministers will also remain in office until the new Bundestag elects a new Chancellor next year.

Previously, there had been five times in the history of Germany that a vote of confidence was called.