German president dissolves parliament, confirms February vote
Al Jazeera
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who lost confidence vote this month, will act as caretaker chancellor at time of rising turmoil.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has dissolved the country’s parliament, confirming that snap elections prompted by the recent collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government will be held on February 23.
Delivering a speech at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace on Friday, Steinmeier said that the country required “a government capable of acting” and “reliable majorities in parliament” to maintain stability in “difficult times”.
Scholz, a Social Democrat, lost a confidence vote in parliament earlier this month after the departure of Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s Free Democrats left his unwieldy governing coalition without a legislative majority.
He will remain in office as a caretaker chancellor until a new government is formed at a time when the country is reeling from a deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market last week, which has revived heated debate over security and immigration.
Suspect Taleb al-Abdulmohse, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who had lived in Germany for nearly 20 years, was a supporter of the increasingly popular far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), and who had promoted Islamophobic views.
