(Bloomberg) -- German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved parliament and set the country’s snap election for Feb. 23, formally endorsing a timetable proposed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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Scholz, of the center-left Social Democrats, ended his three-party alliance with the Greens and Free Democrats last month, when he sacked FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner in a dispute over government borrowing. The surprise move stripped the chancellor of his majority in the lower house, or Bundestag, and paved the way for a national ballot seven months before the scheduled end of his four-year term.
“Especially in difficult times like now, an effective government and reliable majorities in parliament are needed for stability,” Steinmeier said Friday in a televised statement, cautioning that the next government will have “major challenges” to deal with.
These include addressing Germany’s pesistent economic weakness, Russia’s war on Ukraine, turmoil in the Middle East, the expanding impact of climate change and managing migration flows, he said.
Steinmeier, whose role as head of state is mostly ceremonial, didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, but the US President-elect’s imminent return to the White House is another source of uncertainty looming over Europe.
The German president warned about the threat of external influences to democracy, be they “covert, as was evidently the case recently during the elections in Romania, or open and blatant, as is currently being practiced particularly intensively on the X platform.”
Trump adviser Elon Musk, who owns X, has waded into German politics on several occasions in recent weeks, voicing support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD.
“The voting decision is made solely by citizens in Germany who are entitled to vote,” said Steinmeier, a Social Democrat and past vice chancellor, calling on all parties to campaign “with fair and transparent means.”
Voters “expect viable proposals for a positive future for our country, which is having to assert itself in difficult times. And I believe they understand that there are priorities and painful truths involved,” he said.
With just under two months until the ballot, the main opposition conservatives under Friedrich Merz are strides ahead in the polls. Scholz’s SPD is languishing in third place behind the AfD, with the Greens in fourth.
Merz’s center-right CDU/CSU bloc has about 31% support, according to the latest Bloomberg polling average, with the AfD at around 19% and the SPD 16%.