Friedrich Merz, the chair of the former chancellor Angela Merkel's party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), stands to profit most from the bombshell developments in Berlin, one day after Donald Trump's election as US president upended the global political landscape.
In a hastily called news conference on Wednesday night after firing his finance minister - the leader of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), Christian Lindner - Scholz had laid out a roadmap, including a formal confidence vote in January that would lead to a snap election, probably in March.
But yesterday morning, Merz, who is in a strong position to become the country's next leader, rejected the plans, saying there was "absolutely no reason" to wait until January.
The opposition leader said his parliamentary group agreed unanimously that Scholz should schedule the confidence vote by next week "at the latest", after which the country's president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, would have 21 days to dissolve the Bundestag lower house of parliament. That would probably lead to a snap election in late January.
Merz said those three weeks could be used to determine whether there was common ground between his CDU and the remaining parties, Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, to tackle pressing issues including the next federal budget. He later held a 25-minute meeting with Scholz about the path forward, which was described as "fruitless".
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