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

EUR -
AED 3.84909
AFN 70.983076
ALL 98.168084
AMD 408.033489
ANG 1.877746
AOA 956.772304
ARS 1045.934567
AUD 1.608014
AWG 1.888917
AZN 1.780997
BAM 1.956142
BBD 2.103608
BDT 124.501747
BGN 1.96788
BHD 0.392672
BIF 3077.56693
BMD 1.047943
BND 1.404259
BOB 7.239401
BRL 6.098928
BSD 1.041892
BTN 88.430422
BWP 14.233758
BYN 3.409661
BYR 20539.683689
BZD 2.100107
CAD 1.461529
CDF 3008.644792
CHF 0.933707
CLF 0.036935
CLP 1019.137039
CNY 7.592031
CNH 7.595984
COP 4600.207983
CRC 530.697762
CUC 1.047943
CUP 27.770491
CVE 110.899218
CZK 25.334232
DJF 185.535949
DKK 7.457456
DOP 62.791567
DZD 139.877767
EGP 51.749446
ERN 15.719146
ETB 127.546696
FJD 2.385066
FKP 0.827159
GBP 0.83215
GEL 2.871065
GGP 0.827159
GHS 16.552662
GIP 0.827159
GMD 74.404001
GNF 8980.654359
GTQ 8.08725
GYD 219.183481
HKD 8.154967
HNL 26.32885
HRK 7.475249
HTG 136.765194
HUF 411.595345
IDR 16624.306486
ILS 3.879155
IMP 0.827159
INR 88.307488
IQD 1364.864451
IRR 44092.203499
ISK 146.344923
JEP 0.827159
JMD 165.980576
JOD 0.743093
JPY 161.794551
KES 135.676997
KGS 90.649326
KHR 4194.772734
KMF 495.143365
KPW 943.148344
KRW 1467.769713
KWD 0.322609
KYD 0.868268
KZT 520.220796
LAK 22885.434193
LBP 93300.07746
LKR 303.238754
LRD 189.101446
LSL 18.801143
LTL 3.094303
LVL 0.63389
LYD 5.087986
MAD 10.539574
MDL 19.003682
MGA 4862.942225
MKD 61.540749
MMK 3403.678134
MNT 3560.910412
MOP 8.353519
MRU 41.455637
MUR 49.074871
MVR 16.201526
MWK 1806.650049
MXN 21.359806
MYR 4.668554
MZN 66.973635
NAD 18.801143
NGN 1769.410365
NIO 38.337062
NOK 11.559514
NPR 140.70592
NZD 1.790636
OMR 0.401068
PAB 1.047692
PEN 3.95069
PGK 4.194773
PHP 61.7584
PKR 289.326398
PLN 4.334357
PYG 8133.57593
QAR 3.820851
RON 4.978251
RSD 117.724856
RUB 108.694151
RWF 1422.262
SAR 3.934395
SBD 8.785488
SCR 14.270629
SDG 630.340687
SEK 11.508746
SGD 1.410154
SHP 0.827159
SLE 23.819809
SLL 21974.846653
SOS 595.409683
SRD 37.195668
STD 21690.30525
SVC 9.116766
SYP 2632.988191
SZL 18.794642
THB 36.22582
TJS 11.157609
TMT 3.667801
TND 3.328435
TOP 2.454385
TRY 36.218374
TTD 7.076236
TWD 34.002924
TZS 2777.049042
UAH 43.103352
UGX 3871.138521
USD 1.047943
UYU 44.554803
UZS 13366.334712
VES 48.817231
VND 26630.85264
VUV 124.413904
WST 2.925428
XAF 656.077858
XAG 0.034259
XAU 0.000393
XCD 2.832119
XDR 0.792554
XOF 656.077858
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.90718
ZAR 18.9268
ZMK 9432.745885
ZMW 28.781577
ZWL 337.437233
  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

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.Kaufmann--BBZ)