Zürcher Nachrichten - Germany's Scholz says ready to hold confidence vote this year

EUR -
AED 3.826681
AFN 70.961758
ALL 98.138602
AMD 405.652886
ANG 1.877182
AOA 951.190259
ARS 1045.720247
AUD 1.602814
AWG 1.877897
AZN 1.775245
BAM 1.955573
BBD 2.102956
BDT 124.465544
BGN 1.955294
BHD 0.392554
BIF 3076.642669
BMD 1.041829
BND 1.403837
BOB 7.197164
BRL 6.043693
BSD 1.041579
BTN 87.914489
BWP 14.229347
BYN 3.408604
BYR 20419.848375
BZD 2.099456
CAD 1.456529
CDF 2991.091432
CHF 0.930957
CLF 0.036923
CLP 1018.83097
CNY 7.54601
CNH 7.562783
COP 4573.368835
CRC 530.538382
CUC 1.041829
CUP 27.608468
CVE 110.252195
CZK 25.343745
DJF 185.478458
DKK 7.457729
DOP 62.772709
DZD 139.835759
EGP 51.726992
ERN 15.627435
ETB 127.508391
FJD 2.371151
FKP 0.822333
GBP 0.831435
GEL 2.855018
GGP 0.822333
GHS 16.456089
GIP 0.822333
GMD 73.970229
GNF 8977.957272
GTQ 8.040066
GYD 217.904692
HKD 8.110066
HNL 26.320943
HRK 7.431636
HTG 136.72412
HUF 411.522823
IDR 16610.452733
ILS 3.856892
IMP 0.822333
INR 87.968134
IQD 1364.44153
IRR 43834.955489
ISK 145.523076
JEP 0.822333
JMD 165.930728
JOD 0.738765
JPY 161.244275
KES 134.884334
KGS 90.122166
KHR 4193.512952
KMF 492.268155
KPW 937.645704
KRW 1463.259646
KWD 0.320727
KYD 0.867999
KZT 520.059599
LAK 22878.342838
LBP 93271.167197
LKR 303.144792
LRD 187.998165
LSL 18.795317
LTL 3.076251
LVL 0.630192
LYD 5.086409
MAD 10.478083
MDL 18.997794
MGA 4861.435378
MKD 61.522855
MMK 3383.819949
MNT 3540.134882
MOP 8.35093
MRU 41.443187
MUR 48.810083
MVR 16.10707
MWK 1806.090235
MXN 21.283008
MYR 4.654932
MZN 66.583684
NAD 18.795317
NGN 1767.675143
NIO 38.325549
NOK 11.53576
NPR 140.663663
NZD 1.785942
OMR 0.400943
PAB 1.041579
PEN 3.949541
PGK 4.193513
PHP 61.404399
PKR 289.239507
PLN 4.337676
PYG 8131.055634
QAR 3.798559
RON 4.978071
RSD 116.991412
RUB 108.671879
RWF 1421.834864
SAR 3.911473
SBD 8.734231
SCR 14.272055
SDG 626.663972
SEK 11.497837
SGD 1.402931
SHP 0.822333
SLE 23.68116
SLL 21846.638123
SOS 595.230868
SRD 36.978718
STD 21563.75683
SVC 9.113941
SYP 2617.626467
SZL 18.788818
THB 35.922648
TJS 11.092512
TMT 3.646401
TND 3.309016
TOP 2.440072
TRY 35.9978
TTD 7.074178
TWD 33.946439
TZS 2770.578216
UAH 43.089995
UGX 3848.553017
USD 1.041829
UYU 44.294855
UZS 13362.448044
VES 48.506662
VND 26482.251319
VUV 123.688032
WST 2.90836
XAF 655.880824
XAG 0.033274
XAU 0.000384
XCD 2.815595
XDR 0.792308
XOF 655.880824
XPF 119.331742
YER 260.379151
ZAR 18.915093
ZMK 9377.71492
ZMW 28.772658
ZWL 335.468513
  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

Germany's Scholz says ready to hold confidence vote this year
Germany's Scholz says ready to hold confidence vote this year / Photo: Ferenc ISZA - AFP

Germany's Scholz says ready to hold confidence vote this year

Germany's embattled Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday he would be ready to ask for a confidence vote this year to pave the way for snap elections.

Text size:

Scholz, whose coalition collapsed on Wednesday, said that "asking for the vote of confidence before Christmas, if all sides agree, is no problem at all for me".

Previously, he had spoken of a mid-January confidence vote which under German election rules could lead to a late-March election -- half a year earlier than previously scheduled.

"I also want that it happens quickly," the centre-left leader told public broadcaster ARD, referring to a return to the ballot boxes.

"I am not glued to my post," added Scholz, who has been the leader of Europe's biggest economy for almost three years.

The coalition crisis, rooted in differences over economic and fiscal policy, came to a head late Wednesday when Scholz sacked his rebellious finance minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats.

That reduced the unruly three-party coalition government to two parties -- Scholz's Social Democrats and the Greens.

Scholz's political rivals have threatened to block his minority government from passing laws unless he immediately seeks a confidence vote, suggesting he do so next Wednesday.

The chancellor said his party's parliamentary leader Rolf Muetzenich should hold talks on the timing of the confidence vote with the head of the conservative opposition CDU, Friedrich Merz.

He did however caution that all necessary technical preparations had to be in place to allow for a speedy new election.

After the confidence vote, which Scholz is expected to lose, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will have 21 days to dissolve the Bundestag, and new elections will then have to be held within 60 days.

- 'Great differences' -

Germany's political crisis erupted just as Donald Trump won the White House race with as yet unknown consequences for transatlantic relations and trade, and for the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Scholz, who said he would run again as his party's top candidate, said Germany needed a stable new government, legitimised by a new mandate, as soon as possible.

In the election campaign ahead, he said he would point to the "great differences" between his Social Democrats, the traditional workers party, and the centre-right CDU of former chancellor Angela Merkel.

Asked what would be the key differences between him and Merz, a millionaire former corporate lawyer, he replied: "I think I'm a little bit cooler when it comes to matters of state."

According to a poll published in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper conducted by the Insa institute, the CDU and their Bavarian allies the CSU lead at 32 percent.

They are followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany at 19 percent, although all other parties have vowed not to cooperate with the anti-immigration party.

Scholz's Social Democrat is polling at third place with 15 percent, the Greens with 10 percent and the Free Democrats at four percent, one point below the threshold to remain in parliament.

Scholz also rejected charges by his sacked finance minister that he had, in the end, engineered the dramatic coalition breakup.

"I did not provoke it," he told ARD.

L.Zimmermann--NZN