Germany set for early elections

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today formally set in motion his proposal for early German elections as his office notified parliamentary leaders that he plans to hold a confidence vote July 1.

Chancellery official Rolf Schwanitz informed senior lower house members of the plan, Green party politician Volker Beck said.

Schroeder aims to engineer a no confidence vote in the lower house, which would give President Horst Koehler three weeks to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call new elections. The vote is widely expected to be held September 18, about a year ahead of schedule.

A similar tactic was used by Schroeder’s predecessor, Helmut Kohl, who forced elections in 1983 by calling a confidence vote in which his own supporters abstained.

Schroeder, whose coalition of Social Democrats and Greens has a seven-seat majority, has not specified exactly how he will go about losing thevote in July.

He is using the manoeuvre because Germany’s post-World War II constitution does not allow parliament simply to dissolve itself.

Schroeder said last month he would seek early national elections after his Social Democrats suffered a shattering defeat in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a stronghold for nearly four decades.