Olaf Scholz signals willingness for earlier German confidence vote

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By Andreas Rinke and Tom Sims

BERLIN (Reuters) -German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that he would be willing to call a vote of confidence in parliament before Christmas, a move that would pave the way for snap elections following the collapse of his three-way governing coalition.

The timing is earlier than the January date he had proposed last week and follows increasing pressure from politicians and the public for a quicker vote.

Europe’s largest economy was thrown into disarray last week with the collapse of Scholz’s coalition and disagreements over how much money the government should spend to encourage growth and support Ukraine.

“I’m not clinging to my job,” he said in an interview on ARD television.

Scholz had suggested holding a vote of confidence in his government on Jan. 15, with a snap election in March, but the conservative opposition led by Friedrich Merz wants an election in January. A confidence vote is a necessary precursor to an election.

Earlier on Sunday, Scholz came under increasing pressure to bring forward the vote of confidence.

Two leading members of the Green party, which is sharing power with Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) in a minority government, told Bild newspaper that the confidence vote should be held in December.

The Green party’s Anton Hofreiter and Irene Mihalic were the most prominent voices so far from the two parties still in power to back an earlier vote.

Scholz said in the ARD interview that an earlier confidence vote would depend on SPD party official Rolf Muetzenich and the opposition’s Merz reaching an agreement on timing.

“It is not a problem at all for me to call a vote of confidence before Christmas,” he said.

Scholz on Friday demanded a calm debate among Germany’s squabbling factions on setting a date for the snap election to pull the country out of its political crisis.

Scholz called on parties to first agree on what legislation could be passed in what remained of the current parliament but denied trying to ram through his own policy agenda by delaying an election.

(Reporting by Tom SimsEditing by Giles Elgood and Lisa Shumaker)