Election dispute escalates

Election Commissioner defends herself against accusations from the Chancellery

New elections are being held in Germany - but nobody knows when. There is a fierce debate.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Tobias SCHWARZ)

In the dispute over the date for new elections in Germany, Chief Electoral Officer Ruth Brand has rejected the Union's accusation of interference by the German Chancellery. "There were no instructions or influence on the position of the Federal Returning Officer in connection with new elections," said an official spokesperson at the weekend.

"In carrying out her duties, the Federal Returning Officer, as an independent electoral body (...) is not bound by instructions, but by the statutory provisions," the Reuters news agency quoted the spokesperson as saying. It is the task of the Federal Returning Officer to also point out risks when preparing elections.

Party political games
On Saturday, the Parliamentary Secretary of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Thorsten Frei, accused the German Chancellery of wanting to use the Federal Returning Officer for its own purposes. The rump government of SPD and Greens should "refrain from all attempts to instrumentalize heads of authorities for party political games," Frei told Reuters. "The CDU/CSU is demanding nothing other than new elections in accordance with the law." Brand was appointed President of the Federal Statistical Office by the SPD-led Ministry of the Interior at the beginning of 2023 and in this role also holds the office of Federal Election Commissioner.

Criticism of the CDU/CSU also came from the ranks of the SPD and the Greens. "Just because the Union doesn't like the Federal Returning Officer's statement doesn't mean it should be discredited in this way," Katja Mast, Parliamentary Secretary of the SPD parliamentary group, told Reuters. The First Parliamentary Secretary of the Greens, Irene Mihalic, agreed: "It is shabby to criticize a head of authority for calling for appropriate procedures to ensure a fair and orderly election, because that is simply her job," she told Reuters. This "undermines confidence in democratic elections".

According to her spokesperson, Brand explained in her letter to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday that the proper conduct of the election was essential for citizens' trust in democracy. It is therefore necessary to make full use of the 60-day period stipulated by the Basic Law from the dissolution of the German Bundestag in order to be able to take all necessary measures in a legally secure and timely manner. On Monday, the state returning officers will discuss how to proceed.

Federal Returning Officer Ruth Brand

(Bild: picturedesk.com/Bernd Weißbrod / dpa)

Lindner dismissed
As a result of the ongoing budget dispute between the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP, Scholz dismissed German Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Wednesday. The FDP then terminated the coalition and, like the CDU/CSU, called for immediate new elections. However, these can only take place if the German Chancellor loses the vote of confidence in the Bundestag and then calls on the Federal President to dissolve parliament. Scholz has announced the vote of confidence for 15 January, which the CDU/CSU and FDP criticize as being too late.

"I expect Chancellor Scholz to call a vote of confidence as soon as possible," FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai told the Rheinische Post newspaper (Monday edition). "Our country cannot afford a long hanging game." Djir-Sarai said that Scholz should, if possible, put the question of confidence to the Bundestag directly after his government statement planned for Wednesday. SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil called for an end to the discussion about the election date. "The debate is far too emotional for me," Klingbeil told "Zeit online".

German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck of the Greens accused the coalition partners SPD, CDU/CSU and FDP of making serious mistakes. "Complacency and complacency" prevailed in the grand coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), which will govern until 2021, Habeck said on Saturday at an event in Neuhardenberg to mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the grand coalition, the SPD, CDU and CSU had been "blind to the changes of the times" and "shy of conflict", "with the result that we now have to have all these conflicts at once".