The German opposition leader and chairman of the conservative CDU, Friedrich Merz, rules out that he will cooperate with the German Social Democratic Chancellor, Olaf Scholz (SPD).
This is written by the news agency dpa.
– We have no opportunity to achieve more reforms with this government, says Merz to the German television channel ARD on Thursday.
– We will not allow ourselves to be jointly responsible for this government’s mistake, he adds.
Merz has requested a vote of confidence in the next few days. This could lead to elections already being held in Germany at the end of January.
Scholz said Wednesday that a vote of confidence is scheduled for Jan. 15, which would likely lead to new elections in March.
Merz’s rejection comes in the wake of the ruling tripartite coalition between the SPD, the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) disintegrating on Wednesday evening.
It happened after Scholz fired his finance minister, Christian Lindner (FDP), on Wednesday.
Olaf Scholz justifies the dismissal by saying that there are fundamental disagreements among the coalition parties about how the government should get the crisis-stricken German economy back on track.
On Wednesday next week, the new elections will be discussed in the German parliament.
Party leader of the right-wing national party AfD, Alice Weidel, also calls for new elections as soon as possible.
– Scholz can use the opportunity next Wednesday to submit the vote of confidence, she says according to dpa.
According to a survey by the German election research institute Infratest dimap, 65 percent of Germans prefer an election as soon as possible. 33 percent support Scholz’s proposal for new elections in March.
If there were an election today, the conservative CDU would win the most with 34 percent of the vote.
The right-wing national AfD would be second largest, with 18 percent of the vote. This is the conclusion of the institute’s investigation.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
