German chancellor admits he should have acted sooner on coalition collapse

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has acknowledged that he may have delayed dissolving his cabinet for too long.

"Perhaps I should have dissolved the government earlier," Scholz stated at an event in Cottbus, Caliber.Az reports referring to German media.

Using a sports analogy, he explained his reasoning: "When you're the captain of a team, you don't step off the pitch during the game, pull aside the camera crew, and say, 'By the way, this player is performing poorly. And if he keeps it up, we're going to stop here.'" However, he admitted that coalition partners sometimes need to be reminded "to put in more effort."

Germany was originally set to hold its next elections in September 2025. However, tensions within the ruling "traffic light" coalition — especially over the 2025 budget — led to its collapse in the fall of 2024. On November 7, Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), effectively bringing down the three-party government, which also included the Greens. Scholz then submitted a motion of confidence to the Bundestag, which resulted in a vote of no confidence on December 16, triggering early elections.

According to a February 8 INSA poll, the CDU/CSU leads with 29% support, while Scholz’s SPD lags at just 16%, its worst result in history. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) stands at 21%, though all major German parties have ruled out cooperating with it. The Greens, a coalition partner in the outgoing government, hold 12%, while the FDP risks failing to enter the Bundestag.

On February 10, with early elections just two weeks away, Scholz faced opposition CDU/CSU candidate Friedrich Merz in a 90-minute televised debate. A ZDF poll found no clear winner: 37% of viewers saw Scholz as more convincing, 34% backed Merz, and 29% viewed them as equals. Despite this, polling data suggests Merz is the frontrunner, with his bloc securing roughly 30% support.

SPD supporters had hoped Merz would make a critical misstep during the debate that could shift the race, but that did not happen. Scholz, already regarded as Germany's most unpopular chancellor in 25 years, had faced internal party discussions about replacing him with Defense Minister Boris Pistorius as the SPD’s candidate. Now, according to Hermann Binkert, head of the INSA research institute, the SPD appears to be preparing for defeat and is focusing on which cabinet positions it might negotiate for in a post-Scholz government.

With a CDU/CSU victory widely expected, the debate between Scholz and Merz was largely symbolic. However, political scientist Christina Weissenbach noted that the tone of the discussion indicated both parties were open to dialogue — an important factor given that an estimated 20-25% of voters remain undecided. In the end, the debate seemed less like a showdown and more like the beginning of coalition negotiations.

By Tamilla Hasanova