BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that he will ask for a vote of confidence on Dec. 16, paving the way for early parliamentary elections in February.
He declared his plans during a speech in parliament, a week after his three-party coalition government collapsed.
Germany has been governed since 2021 by a coalition led by Scholz’s left-leaning Social Democrats and which included the smaller pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens.
It was an uneasy and fractious alliance, and it collapsed last week when Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats in a late-night move following disagreements over how to revive the shrinking economy.
“The date at the end of February has now been set and I am very grateful for that,” Scholz said, adding that he would try to pass important legislation through parliament before that, such as financial support for children of poor families, or amendments to the country’s constitution to make the highest court more resilient to possible political interference.
He said he would submit a request for a vote of confidence on Dec. 11, so that the Bundestag can decide on this on Dec. 16. The chancellor had initially wanted to have an early election only by late March — ahead of the vote that is regularly scheduled for September 2025.
However, the center-right Christian opposition pushed for a quicker vote in the parliament to speed up the next election.
In the end, party leaders across the political spectrum agreed on Wednesday on the two dates for the vote of confidence and the new election on Feb. 23.
During his speech, Scholz as well as Friedrich Merz, the head of the main opposition party in parliament, the Christian Democrats, already shifted into campaign mode — though the heated part of campaigning usually only begins around six weeks before an election in Germany.
“There is a great sense of relief in our country. For a week now, the so-called progressive coalition (...) has been history. And that is continuing good news for Germany,” Merz said to the applause of his Christian Democrats as he spoke after Scholz in the parliament.
Four candidates are expected to make their bid for the chancellery with voters in February.
Scholz has said that he wants to run as chancellor candidate again — even though his party has not yet announced his candidacy.
Merz of the Christian Democrats, which are currently leading the polls, was officially nominated as candidate by his party in September.
For the environmentalist Greens, the country’s current economy minister and vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, will lead his party as candidate for chancellor and
The Greens are a small party that lost popularity in recent elections and whose support currently hovers around 10 percent, which means it is unlikely that he would end up as the country’s leader.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has said they would nominate current party leader Alice Weidel next month as their candidate.
Merz’s Christian Democrats have been polling around 30 percent or more in the polls for a year now. Scholz’s Social Democrats, currently the strongest governing party, are on third place with around 16 percent — behind the AfD, which is at around 19 percent.
The main campaign issues are likely going to be the country’s ailing econom y which led to the collapse of the government in the first place, more efficient control of migration, and — when it comes to foreign policy issues — Russia’s war on Ukraine and the next presidency of Donald Trump.

NEW DELHI: Residents of India’s capital New Delhi choked in a blanketing toxic smog Wednesday as worsening air pollution surged past 50 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.

Many in the city cannot afford air filters, nor do they have homes they can effectively seal from the misery of foul smelling air blamed for thousands of premature deaths.

Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds trap deadly pollutants each winter, stretching from mid-October until at least January.

At dawn on Wednesday, “hazardous” pollutant levels in parts of the sprawling urban area of more than 30 million people topped 806 micrograms per cubic meter, according to monitoring firm IQAir.

That is more than 53 times the World Health Organization recommended daily maximum of fine particulate matter — dangerous cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs.

By midday, when air usually is at its best, it eased to about 25-35 times above danger levels, depending on different districts.

Bikramjeet Singh, 25, who works as an environmental health safety manager walking on the streets, said breathing in Delhi was like “smoking cigarettes” and he worried for those with asthma.

“Older people have difficulties breathing,” he said.

The city is blanketed in acrid smog each year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in neighboring regions to clear their fields for plowing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.

But a report by The New York Times this month, based on air and soil samples it collected over five years, revealed the dangerous fumes also spewing from a power plant incinerating the city’s landfill garbage mountains.

Experts the newspaper spoke to said that the levels of heavy metals found were “alarming.”

Swirling white clouds of smog also delayed several flights across northern India.

The India Meteorological Department said that at least 18 regional airports had a visibility lower than 1,000 meters (1,093 yards) — dropping below 500 meters in Delhi.

India’s Supreme Court last month ruled that clean air was a fundamental human right, ordering both the central government and state-level authorities to take action.

But critics say arguments between rival politicians heading neighboring states — as well as between central and state-level authorities — have compounded the problem.

Politicians are accused of not wanting to anger key figures in their constituencies, particularly powerful farming groups.

City authorities have launched several initiatives to tackle pollution, which have done little in practice.

Government trucks are regularly used to spray water to briefly dampen the pollution.

A new scheme unveiled earlier this month to use three small drones to spray water mist was derided by critics as another “band-aid” solution to a public health crisis.

The WHO says that air pollution can trigger strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.

It is particularly punishing for babies, children and the elderly.

A study in The Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths to air pollution in the world’s most populous country in 2019.

The choking carbon smog across Delhi came as researchers warned that planet-warming fossil fuel emissions would hit a record high this year, according to new findings from an international network of scientists at the Global Carbon Project.

Researchers said increases in CO2 emissions from India — as well as growth in international aviation — drove emissions up.

It found no sign the world was moving away from fossil fuels as planned.