Early evening summary
Thank you for following our liveblog on today’s historic confidence vote in the Germany’s Bundestag. Olaf Scholz handily lost the ballot, as planned, clearing the way for President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to dissolve the current parliament and call a snap election on 23 February.
The leaders of Germany’s main parties used a fractious three-hour debate to launch their campaigns. Scholz, who will again lead his Social Democrats into the election, lobbed a blistering attack against his former coalition partner, the FDP, accusing it of “weeks-long sabotage” of his government and standing in the way of essential investment to pull Germany out of economic doldrums.
Centre-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz, tipped to win the February election, welcomed the lost confidence vote and accused Scholz of weak leadership in Germany and on the European stage. “It is embarrassing how you acted in the European Union.” The EU’s top economy now embarks on a truncated election campaign that will be interrupted by the Christmas holidays. As no party is likely to win an absolute majority, bridges between the parties – not much in evidence today – will have to be built to create a viable ruling coalition.
We are now closing this blog but you can read our report on the day’s events here:
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Friedrich Merz was also pleased with the outcome and said today’s debate had allowed German voters to see clearly “what the differences are between the parties”. He again defended FDP and Lindner after Scholz’s stinging sittliche Reife (moral maturity) attack and said voters would have a distinct choice also about “which political style” they preferred.
Britta Haßelmann, co-leader of the Greens parliamentary group, welcomed the lost confidence vote as a chance for a new start after a “damaging” period for Germany. She said the FDP bore “great responsibility” for that damage but said the Greens also wanted to look at “what we could have done differently” as a partner in the ruling coalition.
Scholz, as planned, loses confidence vote
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as planned, has lost the confidence vote, paving the way to a snap election on 23 February. Of the 717 votes tallied, 207 gave Scholz their confidence, 394 did not and 116 abstained. Scholz had required 367 confidence votes to “win” the ballot. “We have reached the end of our daily agenda, and also of the traffic light coalition,” said the speaker of the Bundestag, Bärbel Bas, using the nickname of the now defunct three-way coalition. Scholz smiled at the result and shook the hand of his vice-chancellor Robert Habeck. Now the chancellor will head to Berlin’s Bellevue Palace to ask President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to dissolve parliament and allow a general election.
MPs begin voting on confidence measure
After three hours of debate in the Bundestag, lawmakers are now casting ballots on the confidence vote. Scholz plans to lose the vote to clear the way to new elections on 23 February. By all accounts he has the votes he needs to ask President Frank-Walter Steinmeier later today to dissolve the parliament. We’ll be back as soon as the result is in.
Sahra Wagenknecht, the great disruptor of German politics this year with her new eponymous conservative populist BSW party, said Scholz’s government had made “the lives of citizens palpably worse” in its three years in power and that the chancellor owed the electorate an apology. “Three years of decline and you’re asking for a four-year extension – that’s what I call nerve.”
Weidel’s AfD co-leader Timo Chrupalla accuses Merz of copying his far-right party with a harder line on immigration. Merz marks a stark break with his fellow Christian Democrat Angela Merkel in calling for a tougher regime of border checks and deportations. Chrupalla says Merz’s promises will remain hollow given the unlikelihood his CDU/CSU will win an absolute majority in the February general election. “Who do you want to implement your proposals with?” Chrupalla said to Merz, referring to the refusal by all the mainstream parties to cooperate with the AfD.
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right AfD, takes the podium echoing Merz’s charge that Scholz should have called the confidence vote immediately after the government collapsed last month. She attacks the previous coalition for what she calls a failed migration policy, and demands the “immediate” return of Syrian refugees in Germany. Weidel accuses the mainstream parties with their support for weapons aid to Ukraine of making Germany a potential “target” for a nuclear attack, presumably from Russia. Many MPs emptied their seats when Weidel began her speech.
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On a day of more-or-less memorable speeches, Scholz’s broadside against his former finance minister Lindner that governance requires a sittliche Reife, an old-fashioned expression meaning, roughly, moral maturity, seems to have legs. The chancellor’s finger-wagging admonition drew howls from the opposition.
Lindner’s Free Democrats will have to struggle to make it into the next parliament. A recent poll put the centre-right CDU/CSU on 31%, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on 18%, Scholz’s SPD on 17% and the Greens on 13%. The FDP and new leftwing conservative Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance are both scoring right around the 5% threshold for parliamentary representation.
Christian Lindner, who sat through fierce attacks by Scholz at the start of the debate, comes out swinging in his speech. “Olaf Scholz showed again today that he has no strength for fundamental changes – his answers completely fail to address the deep problems of inadequate fitness for economic competition.”
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Habeck, known for a philosophical approach in politics, warned that while European countries such as Germany and France were “occupied with themselves”, the world with its major crises continued to turn. “Now we have this sense of insecurity in a time when we need reassurance.” He said the confidence vote was more than a “technical question” but rather about how politicians can win back voters’ trust.
Greens accuse Merz of being incapable of forging consensus
But Habeck notes that the next government will inevitably face similar problems, regardless of the parties that make it up, requiring “compromises” and a united desire to address Germany’s mounting challenges. He accuses the notoriously hot-tempered Merz of being incapable of forging such a consensus, or being unwilling to.
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Vice-chancellor and economy minister Robert Habeck of the Greens begins his speech acknowledging that the government had failed to surmount its daunting policy differences. “We were annoyed with each other and the traffic light coalition in many ways deserved its bad reputation,” he said, referring to the colours of the three parties in the failed alliance.
Merz accuses Scholz of undermining Germany on the European stage
Merz is also clearly in campaign mode, pushing back against hecklers in the chamber and laying into Scholz and his government’s record. “Olaf Scholz was not able to lead the coalition successfully as chancellor,” Merz said, noting that the three parties “by the end didn’t belong together at all”. The conservative opposition leader said that Scholz’s deficient leadership qualities undermined Germany’s place on the European stage. “It is embarrassing how you acted in the European Union.”
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Merz takes Scholz to task for his harsh attacks in his speech on the FDP and its leader, Christian Lindner. “You talked a lot about respect,” Merz said, referring to one of the leitmotifs of the Social Democrat’s political rhetoric. “But apparently your respect stops when it comes to other political opinions.” Merz called Scholz’s treatment of the FDP as the government collapsed “eine blanke Unverschämtheit” – sheer impudence. There has been rampant speculation whether Merz would seek out the FDP as a potential coalition partner after the election as the liberals’ reputation has suffered in the current crisis. Today’s show of support by Merz will be noted by pundits and the other parties.
Merz: 'Today is a day of relief'
Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz, who is expected to succeed Scholz as Germany’s next chancellor after the February election, begins his rebuttal speech saying that Scholz should have immediately called the confidence vote after the government’s collapse last month. “I can describe today as a day of relief,” he said of the imminent vote.
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Wrapping up, Scholz sounds a positive note after a rather gloomy political season: “Our country has so much that’s good in it,” he said. “We are a country that goes to work every day, a country that sticks together and places cohesion over division, a country whose best days are not behind it but rather ahead of it.”
Scholz reiterates opposition to sending long-range missiles to Ukraine
Scholz, who has campaigned on a pledge of being a “peace chancellor” against frontrunner Merz’s more hawkish approach to Russia, again stresses his opposition to sending long-range Taurus missiles or German soldiers to embattled Ukraine.
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Scholz is clearly using the Bundestag speech as a campaign rally. He has repeatedly denounced his former coalition partner, the Free Democrats, blaming them for the collapse of the government with “weeks-long sabotage”. Referring to their deep differences over fiscal policy, Scholz stresses the need for government spending to address the economic downturn. “Not everyone in the coalition saw it that way,” he said. “If there is a country in the world that can afford to invest then it’s us.” He urges a “modernisation” of the debt brake which curbs state investment.
Scholz is facing persistent heckling from the opposition in the chamber, with his main challenger Friedrich Merz seated in the front row of the centre-right CDU/CSU group. The chancellor angrily tries to call his rivals to order: “We owe the citizens decency and seriousness.”
'It is my goal to call an early general election,' says Scholz
“It is my goal to call an early general election,” Scholz says, saying that he aims to shore up trust in the future of the country by ensuring prosperity and security. “We need more economic growth.”
Scholz also cites the necessity of investment to continue supporting Ukraine in its defence against the Russian invasion while funding the German military. “No voter could have anticipated the challenges we would face over the last three years.”
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Scholz begins noting it is the sixth time in the postwar period that a chancellor has called a confidence vote. He is the fifth chancellor to do so, after fellow Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder used the measure twice.
Scholz is all smiles as the session begins with a loud buzzer echoing through the glass-domed chamber. He is huddling with his Social Democrat cabinet ministers as speaker Bärbel Bas takes the podium.
Scholz can expect to lose today’s vote, touching off the planned course of events.
However speculation has been rife that the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party could try to torpedo the drive for a new election in a bid to create chaos. If enough AfD MPs voted for Scholz in the confidence vote, it could prop up his minority government against its will. To prevent this, the Bundestag is requiring lawmakers to vote by name thus leaving each on the record with their stated preference.
And the parliamentary group leaders of the Greens, junior partners in the government, have advised their members to abstain while the centre-right CDU/CSU and the FDP will vote against Scholz, thus virtually ensuring he won’t gain a majority.
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Scholz hopes majority of MPs will vote against him to pave way for February general election
Scholz, who is deeply unpopular, will begin the session at 1pm CET with a short speech presenting his reasons for calling the confidence motion. He will be the fifth chancellor to use the measure as laid out in Article 68 of Germany’s Basic Law since the second world war – Angela Merkel was a rare exception in never using it despite her 16 years in power through many a crisis. About 90 minutes of debate will follow.
If all goes according to Scholz’s plan, a majority of MPs will vote against Scholz and he can go to president Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace in central Berlin, recommending that the head of state dissolve the current Bundestag and clear the way for a general election. Steinmeier will have 21 days to take his decision, during which he will consult with the leaders of the various parliamentary groups. If he agrees to dissolve the Bundestag, an election would have to be held within 60 days, thus clearing the way to the 23 February poll.
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Confidence vote only item on agenda in Bundestag session
Today’s session in the Bundestag lower house of parliament has one item on the agenda: the confidence vote. Chancellor Olaf Scholz triggered this path to new elections on 23 February by firing his finance minister Christian Lindner last month, which led Lindner’s pro-business Free Democrats to quit the government, robbing it of a majority.
The dramatic developments came after months of infighting over fiscal priorities and ideological differences that finally became too much for Germany’s first three-way federal coalition to bear. The centre-left Social Democrats and ecologist Greens will continue running the EU’s top economy until a new government can be formed, probably in the spring.
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I’m Deborah Cole, one of the Guardian’s two Berlin correspondents, and will be guiding you through today’s historic confidence vote in the Bundestag on Olaf Scholz’s three-year-old government. In Sunday’s Observer, Europe correspondent Jon Henley and I offered a look at the high stakes of the political turmoil in the EU’s two powerhouses, Germany and France, and how they might emerge from it. For Germany, this is Step One.
