Scholz sets Germany on course for election as he requests confidence vote

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has formally asked for a vote of confidence in parliament (AP)

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has formally set Germany on course for an early election by requesting a confidence vote in parliament next week.

Five weeks after his three-party governing coalition collapsed in a dispute over how to revitalise Germany’s stagnant economy, Mr Scholz’s office said he had requested the confidence vote in parliament’s lower house, or Bundestag, for Monday.