Dpa and Reuters
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, November 11, 2024, p. 28
Berlin. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would be willing to call a vote of confidence in parliament before Christmas, a move that would pave the way for early elections after the collapse of his three-party government coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals.
The calendar would be moved forward from the January date it had proposed last week. I don’t hold on to my positionhe assured in an interview on ARD television and after having received more pressure to advance the motion of confidence. For me it is no problem to schedule it before Christmas.
The Greens, who now govern in a minority along with the Social Democrats, also support that request. We have done our job and we are prepared for everythingdeclared the leader of the party, Omid Nouripour, to the newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
On Friday, Scholz called for an agreement in the Bundestag (parliament) on laws that are still pending approval, to which Christian Democrat Frierdrich Merz responded: We can talk about this as soon as Olaf Scholz has established a vote of confidence in the Bundestag. His government statement on Wednesday would be a good opportunity to do so.the magazine quoted Stern.
German electoral authorities plan to meet to discuss preparations for the early Bundestag elections. In a letter to Scholz, the chairwoman of the federal electoral commission, Ruth Brand, warned of the incalculable risks to shorten deadlines. Brand alleged the existence of logistical challenges such as the appointment of special committees, the hiring and training of workers to carry out the process, the organization of polling stations and, finally, possible problems with the acquisition of paper.
A survey published by the Sunday edition of the newspaper Bild places the CDU/CSU alliance with 32 percent of voting intentions; in second place is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), with 19 points; Scholz’s Social Democrats are in third place with 15 percent and the Greens are in fourth position with 10 percent.
The Christian Democrats have ruled out any possibility of a coalition with the right-wing radicals.
Last week, Europe’s largest economy was plunged into chaos after the breakdown of Scholz’s coalition and disagreements over how much money the government should spend to boost growth and support Ukraine.