Germany: President dismisses Scholz’s government appoints it to caretaker role until new government formed
Following the constituent session of the new German Bundestag, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his fourteen ministers received their resignations from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday.
Steinmeier asked Scholz and his ministers to continue running the government until a new government is formed.
The timing of the transfer of power in Germany depends on the progress of negotiations to form a new ruling coalition between the Christian Union and the Social Democratic Party, to which Scholz belongs.
Article 69 of the German Constitution states that the term of office of the Federal Chancellor or of any Federal Minister shall in any case end with the convening of the new Parliament, as the new legislative session of Parliament began, Tuesday, 30 days after the elections.
It’s worth noting that Scholz’s three-party coalition, known as the “traffic light,” consisting of the Social Democratic Party, the Green Party, and the Free Democratic Party, collapsed in early November due to a budget dispute.
During the opening session of the new German Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, a Christian Democratic Party politician, was elected as Bundestag speaker, taking on the second-highest official position in Germany.
Klöckner, who previously served as Minister of Agriculture, was elected Speaker of the Bundestag with the support of a large majority of MPs, with 382 voting in favor, 204 against, five abstentions, and five invalid votes.
Klöckner thus becomes the fourth woman to hold the position of Speaker of the German Bundestag, which, in terms of protocol, is second only to the Federal President in the list of the highest official positions in the German state.
Following this, the new German parliament also elected four vice-presidents in its constituent session: Andrea Lindholz of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), Josefline Ortlieb of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Omid Nouripour of the Green Party, and Bodo Ramelow of the Left Party.
In the same context, the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) suffered its first setback by failing to secure senior positions in the Bundestag.
This comes despite the fact that the party, which is considered extremist in some states, doubled its number of representatives in the recent legislative elections, securing 20.8% of the vote.
This made the AfD party the second-largest political force, holding 152 of the 630 seats.
This failure comes in light of the other parties’ pledge to maintain a firewall against allowing political extremists to reach any positions of power.
The AfD’s winning of nearly a quarter of the seats allows it to benefit from more financial resources, staff, and speaking time in the Bundestag.
