German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has officially submitted the trust vote at the Bundestag. According to Government Spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, the Chancellor signed the written application in accordance with Article 68 of the Basic Law in his office this morning, and then had a staff member of the Chancellor’s Office deliver the document to the office of Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD). The Bundestag will publish the application “swiftly” on its website, Hebestreit said.
Scholz intends to deliver a statement before the vote, according to the document. The debate on the trust vote in the Bundestag is scheduled for Monday at 1 pm. If the application by Scholz, as expected, fails to gain a majority, the Federal President can dissolve the Bundestag at the Chancellor’s suggestion within 21 days.
The right to dissolution would, however, expire as soon as the Bundestag, with the majority of its members, elects a new Chancellor. However, all parties have already agreed on a new election date for February 23. A refusal of the dissolution of the parliament by Steinmeier is considered unlikely.
In the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, the trust vote has been submitted five times, each time by Willy Brandt (1972), Helmut Schmidt (1982), Helmut Kohl (1982), and twice by Gerhard Schröder (2001 and 2005). In three cases – by Brandt, Kohl, and once by Schröder – it was an “untruthful trust vote”, where the defeat was deliberately brought about.