Scholz signals willingness to move up German snap election amid mounting pressure

BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz signaled he is willing to negotiate an earlier date for a likely snap election following the collapse of his ruling coalition.
“We should discuss the [election] date as calmly as possible,” Scholz said on the sidelines of an EU summit in Budapest on Friday.
Germany’s three-party ruling coalition collapsed on Wednesday evening after Scholz announced he had fired the former finance minister, Christian Lindner, which effectively ejected Lindner’s fiscally conservative Free Democratic Party (FDP) from the troubled coalition. Linder and the FDP had been threatening to pull the plug on the coalition for several weeks due to disagreements over spending and measures to stimulate Germany’s ailing economy.
Scholz at the time said he intended to continue ruling in a minority government consisting of his Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens until mid January, when a vote of confidence would be held, leading to a snap election by the spring.
But Friedrich Merz, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has pressured Scholz to drastically move up that timeline so that a snap election takes place in January, before Donald Trump takes office in the U.S. Merz, who based on current polls is likely to become Germany’s next chancellor, has threatened to withhold conservative support for all legislation — a move that would effectively paralyze the German government — unless Scholz agrees to a vote of confidence in the next days.
Scholz on Friday suggested a deal would be possible.
“It would be good if the democratic groups in parliament can agree on which laws can still be passed this year,” Scholz said in Budapest. “This agreement could then also answer the question of when to hold a vote of confidence in parliament, also with regard to the election date.”
In anticipation of the snap election, the parties have already begun their campaigns.
Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, on Friday announced he intends to run for chancellor as the Greens’ top candidate, a move that was long expected.
“I am ready to offer my experience, my strength and my responsibility, if you want, also as chancellor,” Habeck said in a nearly nine-minute video posted on Friday, which featured him sitting at a kitchen table.
Habeck stands little chance of winning, based on current polls, but it’s possible the Greens could be part of a next governing coalition as a junior partner.