|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Naturally, the Chancellor plays a central role in our country's political system. He is the one who can appoint and dismiss ministers. We saw the latter happen recently when Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, heralding the end of the traffic light coalition. The Chancellor is also the one who, in the event of a negative outcome of a vote of confidence, can propose to the Federal President that the Bundestag be dissolved. No one else has this right.
Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany have called for a vote of confidence five times to date. The first time was in 1966, when the SPD parliamentary group submitted a „request for a vote of confidence“. However, the then Chancellor Ludwig Erhard rejected the request. Since then, no further requests for a vote of confidence have been made.
The five votes of confidence to date
1972 – Willy Brandt
The first vote of confidence was called by Willy Brandt on 20 September 1972. The defeat was deliberately brought about by the SPD parliamentary group, as the members of the Federal Government did not take part in the vote. This meant that the necessary votes for a majority were not available. Prior to this, a constructive vote of no confidence against Brandt had narrowly failed. However, the Chancellor could no longer be sure of his majority. On the day of the defeat, Federal President Gustav Heinemann dissolved the German Bundestag. The subsequent Bundestag election confirmed Willy Brandt in office.
1982 – Helmut Schmidt
The Social Liberal Federal Government became divided over the federal budget and the NATO Double-Track Decision, which provided for the deployment of nuclear missiles in Western Europe, including Germany. Although Schmidt won the vote of confidence in February 1982, the coalition finally collapsed in September and Schmidt was brought down by a constructive vote of no confidence.
1982 – Helmut Kohl
Although Kohl was elected Chancellor with the votes of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and the votes of the FDP members who had left the Schmidt government, Kohl wanted to obtain legitimacy for his government with the FDP from the sovereign – the voters. So the vote of confidence was deliberately lost, leading to new elections, which Kohl won decisively.
2001 – Gerhard Schröder
The terrorist attacks of 11 September also had an impact on German politics. At the end of 2001, it was Gerhard Schröder who used the means of a vote of confidence. On 16 November 2001, he linked the vote on German participation in the Afghanistan mission to the vote of confidence. He won by a narrow margin of 10 votes. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group voted against the combined motion, even though it was actually in favour of the Bundeswehr mission in the Hindu Kush. Nevertheless, it was enough for Schröder.
2005 – Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Schröder again called for a vote of confidence on 27 June. Shortly before, the SPD had lost the important state election in North Rhine-Westphalia. The last remaining red-green state government was voted out of office. Schröder lost the vote of confidence in the Bundestag and presented Federal President Horst Köhler with a whole dossier documenting his loss of confidence in the German Bundestag. The SPD narrowly lost the subsequent election and Angela Merkel became Chancellor.
2024 – Olaf Scholz
Now it is Olaf Scholz who is using the instrument of the vote of confidence. In fact, his remaining federal government no longer has a majority in the German Bundestag after the FDP left the coalition. Since no other majorities for Scholz are in sight, the vote of confidence may be an effective means of enabling new elections, but ...
Renewed debate on the vote of confidence
Of course, in a democracy it must be possible to dissolve an elected parliament if the majority situation does not allow for the identification of a majority capable of governing. Our Basic Law does not provide for the Bundestag to dissolve itself. In this respect, the only options are a vote of confidence (Article 68 of the Basic Law, by the Chancellor) and a constructive vote of no confidence (Article 67 of the Basic Law, by Parliament).
But what will be different in 2024 is the way in which the new Bundestag elections will be brought about. The current Chancellor will go to the Federal President and simply hammer out the entire schedule for the new elections. The date for the new elections will thus have been set long before the vote of confidence is even called. We see the Federal Returning Officer philosophising in a TV interview that 23 February 2025 would be a feasible date. It leaks out in advance which parliamentary groups will vote how and which will have to abstain. Thus, the process of dissolving parliament and subsequently holding new elections to the German Bundestag, which is enshrined in the Basic Law, degenerates into a farce. All this has little to do with confidence or no confidence. Members of parliament decide according to party policy, not according to their conscience.
The architects of our constitution probably deliberately made the process for calling new elections so complex that it would only be used in extreme emergencies. Such a process causes several months of parliamentary deadlock and more or less puts government business on hold during this period. Although there is a caretaker government, experience shows that, for tactical electoral reasons, not much will happen in terms of legislation in the period leading up to a new election until a new government is in office and thus able to act. This means, for example, that the 2025 federal budget cannot be passed in a timely manner.
Perhaps the authors of the Basic Law also had the many staff members of the members of parliament in mind. Around 700 members of parliament have an average of perhaps five staff members each. This results in 3,500 staff members who have organised their lives in such a way that they work in the Bundestag for four years, perhaps separated from their families, perhaps with an additional flat in the capital that they have rented for four years. If the legislative period is reduced from four to three years, this could cause significant financial problems for some of these staff members. Employment contracts end inexorably at the end of the legislative period, regardless of when that is. And not all of them will continue to be employed after a new election. The reduction of the Bundestag from around 700 to 600 members of parliament alone will therefore cost around 500 jobs in Berlin.
Further sources:
https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/politik/olaf-scholz-bundestag-vertrauensfrage-100.html
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/mit-wahlkampfrede-scholz-stellt-vertrauensfrage-li.3167717
