President Frank-Walter Steinmeier decided to disband Germany’s lower house of parliament on Friday, December 27.
As per Reuters, this move is intended to allow for snap elections on February 23.
Steinmeier said in Berlin, "Especially in difficult times, like now, stability requires a government capable of acting, and reliable majorities in parliament.”
This decision follows the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition.
The president also emphasised the importance of conducting the upcoming election campaign in a fair and transparent way.
Later on the same day, he said in a post on his social media account X (formerly Twitter), "External influence is a danger to democracy, whether it is covert, as was evidently the case recently in the Romanian elections, or open and blatant, as is currently being practiced particularly intensively.”
Scholz lost a vote of confidence in the German parliament after Christian Linder’s party, the Free Democrats left the coalition government.
As a result, Scholz’s government no longer had enough support in parliament to pass laws and is now in a caretaker role until a new government can be formed.
After the vote of confidence, election campaigning began in full force. Friedrich Merz, the conservative politician who is expected to replace Scholz criticized the current government.
He claimed that the current government had imposed too many regulations, which he believes have slowed down economic growth.
