BERLIN: In the hopes of surviving a political crisis and winning a second term, Germany’s beleaguered Chancellor Olaf Scholz will address parliament on Monday to begin the process leading up to the February 23 elections.
The Bundestag will dissolve and a new election will be held if Scholz, 66, whose coalition fell apart last month, calls for a confidence vote that he is likely to lose.
Opinion surveys show Friedrich Merz, 69, the leading candidate of former chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU-CSU opposition party, is far ahead.
The political rivalry takes place as Europe’s largest economy struggles to turn around its faltering export-driven industrial sector due to increasing energy costs and fierce competition from China.
