Chancellor Olaf Scholz loses confidence vote - what is next for Germany? - video Dailymotion

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe speaks to Dr. Ulrich Brückner, Professor for European Studies at Stanford University Berlin.

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00:00Ulrich Bruckner is Professor of European Studies at Stanford University in Berlin

00:05and joins us now. Professor, thanks so much for your time.

00:08So this is actually the result that Olaf Scholz wanted,

00:11going to get hopefully the backing of the electorate for his economic way forward.

00:17A calculated risk for him. Do you think it's a wise move for the country?

00:23Well, first of all, it is a political move,

00:27because all the parties involved expect this to be more or less beneficial for them.

00:33Either they couldn't get any influence within the coalition.

00:37This is the story of the liberals,

00:40and it's the main reason why they provoked the end of the coalition.

00:44And for the two remaining party members in the coalition,

00:49it is more or less a reflection of a changing mood in the German society.

00:55So I don't really read it as a major crisis of the German political system.

01:00After all, the Demos has a say.

01:04And if the spirit in the Demos changes,

01:07then the most natural reaction is to elect a new government.

01:10All right. So you think it's perhaps a good move to head for an election in February.

01:17It's, of course, coming at a time of great economic uncertainty for the country.

01:22And globally, there's a lot of turbulence,

01:25if you look at incoming US President Donald Trump.

01:29Do you think that there's a good way forward for the economy?

01:34Do you think that there's a right way to handle the economy?

01:37Because we've seen this massive conflict between Olaf Scholz and the finance ministry he fired.

01:42Clearly, two very different approaches on how to fix the economy.

01:48Well, there are definitely a lot of exogenous factors,

01:52why the German economy and also the mood in the country is so negative.

01:57And it doesn't really look bright for the coming year.

02:00But there are also homegrown problems that are partly structural.

02:05Like when we look at the composition of the electorate,

02:0930 percent of the electorate is retired.

02:14And you address a workforce that is shrinking in percentage.

02:20But at the same time, there have never been more people employed in the German economy.

02:25And we still see stable jobs in industry,

02:29although everyone is complaining that Germany is losing competitiveness.

02:33So there are a number of homegrown and external problems

02:37that make no matter who is in power in a complicated situation.

02:42At the same time, the Ampel coalition, like the three streetlight colors that ended today,

02:52they started a program to reform Germany

02:58and did a lot of things that people didn't really expect in its far-reaching consequences.

03:05So in a way, history repeats itself because we see a similar situation

03:10at the end of the Social Democrat government in 2005,

03:14when too much has been done too quickly and people rather wanted continuity

03:20and voted for a conservative government,

03:22which has been in power for the longest time in the history of West Germany.

03:27So what we see is not a major shift or a major change in positions.

03:32It's more like a calibration of centrist parties.

03:36We shouldn't forget the extreme left and the extreme right in the country.

03:40This is a new phenomenon.

03:42But after all, it's basically a functioning normal democratic procedure.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz loses confidence vote - what is next for Germany?

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