Parliamentary parties negotiate election date

Berlin (dpa) – Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that he will call a vote of confidence in the Bundestag once the two largest parties in the Bundestag have agreed on an election date. The heads of the SPD and CDU parliamentary groups are currently negotiating the date. If the Chancellor calls a vote of confidence in parliament and loses the vote, a new election must be held within six weeks. As such, the date of the vote of confidence sets the time frame for elections. Scholz originally announced that he was aiming for the end of March as the election date, but sufficient preparation time is required for the elections, too. “It’s no problem at all for me to call the vote of confidence before Christmas, if this is what everyone agrees on,” said Scholz.