Keystone-SDA
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June 10, 2024 – 3:14 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) Chancellor Olaf Scholz rules out the option of an early legislative vote, like the decision taken by France, after his government’s bitter setback in the European elections, his spokesperson said on Monday.
The idea of early elections, demanded by the far right and conservative leaders, was not considered “at any time, not for a second”, clarified Steffen Hebestreit, despite an “unsatisfactory” result from the three parties of the government coalition bringing together the Chancellor’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the Liberals.
“The date of regular elections is set for the fall of 2025. This is what we plan to do,” added the spokesperson, highlighting the big differences between the French system, in which the president plays a leading role. plan, and German where all national executive power is in the hands of the chancellor and his government.
Less than a third of the votes
Between them, the coalition parties in place since the end of 2021 received less than a third of the votes in the European vote the day before and all lost ground, especially the Greens, according to still provisional results.
The big winner of the elections is the conservative camp, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian ally CSU party, with 30%, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party with 15 .9%.
CSu leader calls for elections
On Monday, the CSU leader called for elections “as quickly as possible” and “a new beginning for our country”. The Scholz government “no longer has any support among the population,” Markus Söder told broadcaster NTV.
Mr. Scholz “has only one task left to accomplish,” said AfD co-president Alice Weidel on her account: “open the way to new elections – instead of governing one more year against the vast majority of the population.”
Since the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, early elections have been held three times after a failed vote of confidence in the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament: under the social democrat Willy Brandt (1972 ), the conservative Helmut Kohl (1982) and Gerhard Schröder, also a social democrat, in 2005.
