The News
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz overwhelmingly lost a parliamentary vote of confidence Monday, setting the stage for February elections.
Scholz called for the vote — which he was expected to lose — after his three-party coalition collapsed last month. The German leader is betting that holding a national election seven months early is his largely unpopular center-left party’s best chance of survival.
The political upheaval is one of many challenges facing the world’s fourth-largest economy: Germany’s GDP is forecast to shrink this year, with marginal growth in the future likely.
As Scholz’s political star dims, the country’s conservative opposition are on track to perform strongly in the elections, recent polling suggests, while far-right and far-left populist parties, having already eaten away at the establishment’s electoral hold, are also set to gain.