BERLIN, Nov 12: Germany's biggest political parties have agreed on a timetable leading to an early general election on February 23, a source in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) party said Tuesday.
The agreement was reached at a time Germany is mired in a deep political crisis, between the parliamentary groups of the centre-left SPD and the main conservative opposition CDU/CSU, the source told AFP.
The compromise deal comes days after Scholz's three-way coalition collapsed with the withdrawal of the smallest party, the liberal and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
The political turmoil has hit as Europe's biggest economy is set to shrink for a second year in a row and amid heightened geopolitical volatility, with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The agreed election date would mean Germany will be in the middle of its campaign when Donald Trump is inaugurated as US president on January 20.
Scholz, who wants to run again, initially suggested an election in late March but came under pressure from the CDU as well as his own Greens coalition partners to speed up the process.
The CDU is riding high in opinion polls and its leader Friedrich Merz had been pushing for an election as early as possible.
A recent poll found that two-thirds of voters also wanted an election sooner rather than later. —AFP
