Pistorius says he won't run for chancellor candidate in February's snap elections

euronews (in English)

The announcement, which Boris Pistorius made in a video posted to SDP social media channels, clears the way for incumbent chancellor Olaf Scholz to run for a second term.

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00:00Germany's defense minister Boris Pistorius has said he won't run for chancellor in February's

00:07snap elections.

00:09In a video posted to SDP social media channels, Pistorius said he's not available and would

00:14instead support Olaf Scholz's re-election bid.

00:18Pistorius, currently polling as Germany's most popular politician, said his decision

00:23not to run against Scholz was sovereign and entirely personal.

00:27Scholz called a snap election after the collapse of the coalition in early November.

00:32That came after Scholz fired the then-finance minister Christian Lindner.

00:36Scholz told the press at the time that Lindner had broken his trust too many times.

00:41As per German election rules, the Bundestag will hold a government confidence vote on

00:45December 16 before voters head to the polls on February 23.

00:50The traffic light coalition has governed Germany since 2021 and its collapse meant Scholz's

00:56government no longer had a majority in parliament.

00:59The SDP confirmed on Thursday that they would nominate Scholz as their lead candidate for

01:04chancellor next week.

01:05But according to current opinion polls, support for the Social Democratic Party is low.

01:11A tally published on Thursday by political research group Infratest-D-Map shows the CDU-CSU

01:17polling at 33 percent, with the SPD trailing behind at 14 percent, level with the Greens.

01:26For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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