German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has dissolved the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, paving the way for early federal elections.
The decision came on Friday.
He has announced in Berlin that the snap elections will be held on February 23, which was earlier agreed by major political parties.
Steinmeier stressed that a capable government with a reliable parliamentary majority is needed during these challenging times.
He, further, added that new elections are the appropriate course of action for the country’s benefit, claim reports.
On December 16, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost in a vote of confidence in the Bundestag.
The move dissolved Scholz’s minority coalition government and triggered a process that led to early federal elections.
The confidence vote saw 207 parliament members expressing confidence in Scholz, with 394 voting against him and 116 abstaining.
Such a vote had not taken place in Germany for almost two decades.
Scholz had requested the confidence vote the previous week, invoking Article 68 of the Basic Law, as the only viable way to trigger early elections.
Major opposition parties had long called for this.
Concerns are in place that Scholz could unexpectedly win the vote.
This scenario could have materialised if members of Scholz’s SPD and the Greens voted in favour, while the AfD also voted to support him to create chaos.
To prevent the possibility of unintended support from the AfD’s 76 members potentially pushing Scholz over the required 367 votes, the Green party leadership had advised its members to abstain
The regular federal elections had originally been scheduled for September the following year.
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