German opposition hits out at Scholz for delaying confidence vote

Conservative leader wants confidence vote now, triggering January election, as poll shows more than half of Germans agree.

Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz has slammed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, describing his decision to delay a confidence vote until next year as “irresponsible”.

Merz, who leads the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), accused Scholz on Friday of being steered by “party-political motives” after he declined calls for an immediate parliamentary vote of confidence following the collapse of his rocky three-way coalition government this week.

The “vast majority” of the German electorate agreed with his view that Scholz, who now leads a minority government with his Social Democrats and the Greens after the Free Democrats (FDP) party exited the coalition, was being “irresponsible”, Merz said.

Opposition parties and business groups want an immediate vote, which Scholz would likely lose, enabling elections to be held eight months ahead of schedule in January, a move that they say will minimise political uncertainty.

But Merz, who met Scholz on Thursday, failed to convince the chancellor to budge from his original plan of holding the vote on January 15, meaning new elections would not be held until the end of March.