Germany goes for elections...again

Germany is set to hold snap parliamentary elections in two months following the failure of a confidence vote in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government today (Monday), according to POLITICO.

According to POLITICO's report, this no confidence vote was planned by Scholz to trigger snap elections after his coalition began to come apart in clashes over government spending.

Surprisingly, some members of the far-right AfD had declared their intention to support Scholz in the confidence vote, as they fear he will be replaced by the Christian Democratic party which is far more hawkish on Russia, but they were preempted by an abstention of Green MPs who neutralized any such plan.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier now has 21 days to dissolve the Bundestag, which would lead to elections within precisely 60 days, leaving it up to him to determine the precise date.