German president dissolves parliament, confirms February vote

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.