BERLIN — Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced on Friday he has agreed to Chancellor Olaf Scholz's request to dissolve parliament and has set 23 February as the date for the new elections.

Steinmeier was widely expected to adhere to the date pre-agreed upon by Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the country's main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The president's decision means that Germans will head to the polls in February, a date pulled forward significantly after the ruling coalition's government collapsed, causing Scholz to call an unsuccessful confidence vote on 16 December.

The Bundestag's vote of no confidence against Scholz last Monday was only the sixth since 1949 in the country, and it is the fourth time a German government's electoral term has ended prematurely.

Scholz saw his unpopular three-party coalition collapse after he fired his Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). Lindner removed his ministers from the coalition, which led to its demise.

The so-called "traffic light" coalition between the FDP, SPD and the environmentalist Green party led Germany since 2021. Internal divisions between the different parties reached the breaking point in November over a row about the country's next year's budget.

As per Germany's constitution, the Bundestag will continue functioning until a new government is selected in February.

During his speech, Steinmeier alluded to Germany's political uncertainty, saying, "In difficult times like these, stability requires a government capable of taking action and reliable majorities in parliament."

"That is why I am convinced that new elections are the right way forward for the good of our country," Steinmeier said.

He also acknowledged that the German public would face an unusually short campaign period marked by economic uncertainty, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the pressing issues of controlling immigration and climate change.

"That is why the coming weeks must be about finding the best solutions to the challenges of our time," the president said, adding that the election campaign should be conducted with "respect and decency".

According to the latest poll by public broadcaster ZDF, the CDU will likely take first place with 31% of the vote. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is currently in second place with 19%, followed by the SPD with 15%, and the Greens, holding out with 14%.

It is unclear which party the CDU might want to form a coalition with should the polls hold. Its leader, Friedrich Merz, has ruled out working with the AfD.

The campaign is well under way within Germany, with different parties laying out their contrasting visions for the country's future. Germany's faltering economy, controlling immigration and Russia's war in Ukraine are set to be key issues politicians will be competing with to convince voters.

The country is also reeling from an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg last Friday, which killed five people and injured hundreds.

Prosecutors investigating the incident have warned the suspect, a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006, had an atypical profile outside of those they had built up based on perpetrators of previous extremist attacks in Germany.

The man described himself as an ex-Muslim who was highly critical of Islam on social media and expressed support for the far right. He had previously been the subject of tip-offs, but, as German Justice Minister Volker Wissing told the Funke newspaper group, "his political statements were so confused that none of the security authorities' patterns fitted him."

Authorities have warned that it was too early to make conclusive judgments on the attacker's motivations. However, the AfD held a rally in Magdeburg on Monday, with the party's leader, Alice Weidel, describing the attack as an "act of an Islamist full of hatred for what constitutes human cohesion ... for us Germans, for us Christians.”

“There is still a lot we don't know and a lot is unexplained, including the exact motive," Chancellor candidate for the Green party, Robert Habeck, said in a video posted Monday.

"All the same, I fear that the distrust that was immediately propagated on the net against Muslims, foreigners and people with a history of immigration will entrench itself deeper in society.”

In his speech, Steinmeier slammed the attempts to exert outside influence on the campaign, saying there was no room for "defamation, intimidation, violence" as Germans head to the polls. — Euronews