Germany needs a government capable of action and stability, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said today in response to the collapse of the governing coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP).
He added that he is ready to dissolve the parliament if the conditions are met. In the afternoon, the president will dismiss three FDP ministers, the fourth has decided to remain in the government as a non-party member.
“The end of one coalition is not the end of the world, it’s a political crisis,” Steinmeier said in a short speech at Bellevue Castle. According to him, the situation that arose on Wednesday with the collapse of the government’s three-coalition rarely occurred in the 75-year history of the federal republic. But the Constitution also remembers that, he added. “Our country needs stable majorities and a government capable of action,” the president said.
Negotiations were held in Berlin on Wednesday, which were supposed to lead the government’s tripartite coalition out of a deep crisis. At the same time, the Minister of Finance and the chairman of the FDP, Christian Lindner, proposed to hold early elections during which the SPD, the Greens and the FDP would continue to govern together. Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused and decided to remove Lindner from his ministerial post. He later announced that he would ask the Bundestag for a vote of confidence in January. He thus opened the way to early elections, which should be held at the latest at the end of March.
The FDP announced on Wednesday evening that it was withdrawing all four of its representatives from the government. But Transport Minister Volker Wissing said this morning that Chancellor Scholz had asked him to stay in the government. Wissing decided to comply with him, but left his party and will be in the government as a non-party member. His Social Democrats and the Greens also remain in Scholz’s government, but they do not together have a majority of deputies in the Bundestag.
Steinmeier also said he would dismiss Finance Minister Lindner, Justice Minister Mark Buschmann and Education and Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger this afternoon. According to him, the other ministers will remain in office. According to German media, the Social Democrat and close associate of Chancellor Scholz, Jörg Kukies, will take over the office of Minister of Finance.
According to the German constitution, the chancellor can ask the Bundestag for a vote of confidence when he wants to make sure that he still has the support of a sufficient number of deputies. It may or may not tie it to a specific bill. It is expected that Scholz will not receive the confidence after the collapse of the triple coalition. In such a case, the president will be able to dissolve the Bundestag within the next 21 days at the chancellor’s request. According to the constitution, early elections follow within 60 days. They were supposed to take place on September 28th, but now March 9th is most often talked about. The last time this was done was in 2005 by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who asked for a vote of confidence after the state elections in Lower Saxony, which his Social Democracy lost.
Source: zpravy.tiscali.cz
