Berlin:
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved Germany's parliament on Friday to pave the way for early elections on February 23 following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition.
“Especially in difficult times, like now, stability requires a government that is able to act, and reliable majorities in parliament.” Therefore, early elections were the right way forward for Germany, Steinmeier said in Berlin.
After the elections, solving problems must become the core task of politics again, Steinmeier said in a speech.
The president, whose position in the post-war era was largely ceremonial, also called for a fair and transparent conduct of the election campaign.
“External influence is a danger to democracy, whether it is covert, as was clearly the case recently in the Romanian elections, or overt and blatant, as is currently being practiced particularly intensively on (social media) platform X,” he said.
Scholz, a Social Democrat who will lead a transitional government until a new one can be formed, lost a confidence vote in parliament earlier this month after Finance Minister Christian Lindner's Free Democrats left his unwieldy governing coalition without a legislative majority.
The vote also kicked off the election campaigns, with conservative challenger Friedrich Merz, who surveys show is likely to replace Scholz, claiming the incumbent government had imposed excessive regulations and stifled growth.
The conservatives have a comfortable lead of more than 10 points over the Social Democrats (SPD) in most polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is slightly ahead of the SPD, while the Greens, a coalition partner, are in fourth place.
Mainstream parties have refused to govern with the AfD, but its presence complicates parliamentary arithmetic, making shaky coalitions more likely.
