Germanys Scholz loses confidence vote, triggering early elections [Video]

Germany’s centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote on Monday after weeks of turmoil, setting Europe’s biggest economy on the path to early elections on February 23.

The Bundestag vote, which Scholz had expected to lose, allows President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to dissolve the legislature and formally order an election.

The crucial vote followed a fiery debate in which political rivals traded angry recriminations in a foretaste of the election campaign to come.

Embattled Scholz, 66, lags badly in the polls behind conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.

After over three years at the helm, Scholz was plunged into crisis when his unruly three-party coalition collapsed on November 6, the day Donald Trump won re-election to the White House.

The political turbulence has hit Germany as it struggles to revive a stuttering economy hammered by high energy prices and tough competition …