The Bundestag yesterday voted no confidence in Chancellor Olaf Scholz after his 25-minute speech in which he spoke of the German economy’s struggle to maintain its role as the locomotive of Europe, but above all he pointed the finger at the responsibilities of the liberals of Fdp who made the ‘traffic light coalition’ disappear, delving into electoral campaign themes and with the tones of the chancellery candidate.
The no-confidence vote paves the way for early elections as early as February 23rd. Scholz, by dismissing the finance minister and leader of the liberal party, Christian Lindner, at the beginning of November, broke up the tripartite – made up of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP – which had led the country since the 2021 general elections. The dismissal led to the exit of the FDP from the executive and Scholz found himself with a minority made up of 207 social democratic deputies and 117 greens.
The vote of confidence is a political tool with which the Federal Chancellor can check whether or not the Bundestag trusts him and his policies. It was introduced into the Basic Law after the Second World War to ensure that the Federal Chancellor could not dissolve the Bundestag alone.
So far, the vote of confidence has been called five times in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The last time was almost 20 years ago by former SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
