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Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told parties to offer “solutions” to the Middle East conflict and its knock-on effects in Europe as he officially called a general election for February 23.
Mr Steinmeier formally dissolved parliament on Friday to begin a two-month election campaign clouded by social and economic unease and uncertainty abroad as Donald Trump returns to the White House. Polls predict German voters will follow the anti-incumbent trend of the US, Britain and other democracies by removing Chancellor Olaf Scholz from power.
An early election had been inevitable since Mr Scholz's three-party coalition collapsed in November, but dissolving parliament is a complex procedure under a post-1945 German constitution designed to ensure stability. Mr Scholz deliberately lost a confidence vote on December 16 to put the decision in Mr Steinmeier's hands.
“In difficult times, stability requires a viable government and reliable majorities in parliament,” Mr Steinmeier said in a speech confirming his decision to dissolve parliament on Friday. “I am confident that new elections are now the right path for the good of our country.”
He said the next government would face “great tasks” in ruling Germany as he told candidates to focus on “the best solutions for the challenges of our time” in our coming weeks. These include the economy, migration, climate change and “the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, whose effects are also being felt here”, he said. The war in Gaza has sparked protests, acts of anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic violence and questions over Germany's longstanding support for Israel.
Mr Steinmeier warned of possible foreign interference in Germany's election, after suspected Russian influence led to a rerun of a recent presidential vote in Romania. He said “open and flagrant” attempts at meddling were taking place on social media site X, whose owner Elon Musk has come out in support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Magdeburg fallout
The far right's signature issue of migration was thrust back into focus by a Christmas market attack in Magdeburg last Friday, in which five people were killed. The suspect was a Saudi-born migrant who had lived in Germany since 2006 and appeared to have an eccentric mixture of views, including anti-Islam and pro-AfD sentiments.
In a statement on Friday, centre-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz warned of a growing violent streak in Germany and a rise in serious crimes perpetrated by migrants. He said “political Islam” was a prime motive for crimes committed by foreigners in Germany.
“We tolerate too many people in Germany who do not want to integrate,” said Mr Merz, whose Christian Democrats hold a steady lead in opinion polls. He said authorities should be able to deport people “even below the threshold” of criminal convictions, although he also warned that foreigners should not come under a “blanket suspicion”.
Polls show Mr Merz's bloc on course to win more than 30 per cent of the vote. The AfD is second with a little under 20 per cent, but a coalition is unthinkable with a party viewed by many as echoing the Nazi era. Mr Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) are battling to stay in third ahead of their one remaining coalition partner, the Greens.
Mr Merz's party has worked with both before but the Greens have become a conservative punching bag and a previous grand coalition with the Social Democrats was little loved during its 2013 to 2021 term. Another option, the left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), is viewed as having Russian sympathies that might make co-operation difficult.
Mr Scholz, who staged a last-minute surge in the polls to win the chancellorship in 2021, is hoping to repeat the trick after seeing off proposals to replace him on the SPD ticket. One recent poll showed just 11 per cent of Germans naming him as their preferred chancellor, putting him fourth behind Mr Merz, Green candidate Robert Habeck and the AfD's Alice Weidel.
Parliament Speaker Baerbel Bas called for a “fair and respectful” election campaign. “Differing positions must be made clear. But slurs and personal insults are unacceptable,” she said. “People expect a fair and factual discussion even on controversial issues.”
