Investing.com — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has dissolved the national parliament and scheduled a snap election for Feb. 23. This move officially supports a plan proposed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who terminated his ruling coalition last month.

Scholz, a Social Democrat, ended his three-party alliance with the Greens and Free Democrats after he dismissed FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner over a disagreement regarding government borrowing. This unexpected action left Scholz without a majority in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house, and set the stage for a national election seven months ahead of the end of his four-year term.

With less than two months until the election, the main opposition conservatives, led by Friedrich Merz, are significantly ahead in the polls. Scholz’s SPD party is currently in third place, trailing behind the far-right Alternative for Germany party, with the Greens ranking fourth.

The Greens currently hold about 13% of the vote, while Lindner’s FDP is at risk of not reaching the 5% threshold required for parliamentary inclusion, currently polling at 4%.

Lars Klingbeil, an SPD co-leader, expressed his belief that the party can start closing the gap to the conservatives in January and still has the potential to emerge as the strongest party again. During the previous election in 2021, the SPD managed to secure almost 26% of the vote in the final weeks of campaigning, outperforming the CDU/CSU, which received 24%.

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