German Chancellor Olaf Scholz loses no confidence vote with snap elections just months away

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has lost a vote of confidence in parliament, triggering a potential early election.

The Chancellor called today’s vote and expected to lose it, but intended the early election to be a chance for him to revive his party’s political fortunes.

This comes two months after the fall of Scholz’s three-party coalition government which left him in charge of a minority administration.

Ahead of today’s vote, Scholz said it was now up to the voters to “determine the political course of our country.”

However, Monday’s result was the outcome the Chancellor had hoped for.

Since his coalition collapsed in November, he had relied on the conservative opposition to pass any new laws, rendering his administration ineffective.

Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) had been trailing in opinion polls while conservatives Christian Democratic Union (CDU) appears to be on course to return to government.

Scholz said Monday that he had called the vote not only for parliament but the whole of the electorate.

Prior to the vote he said: “Do we dare be a strong country, to invest powerfully in our future.”

This marks only the sixth time in Germany’s history that such a vote has taken place.

This is a breaking news story – more to follow…