German president dissolves parliament and announces February election date

By Tamsin Paternoster & Video by Liv Stroud

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.

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

This is a developing story and our journalists are working on further updates.