Germany’s Scholz Set to Trigger Early Election

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

Olaf Scholz’s slow shuffle toward a potential exit from power is picking up speed. The German chancellor will file a petition with the lower house of parliament today formally requesting a confidence vote for Monday. Once he loses that, he’ll ask the president to dissolve the Bundestag and the election will be set for Sunday, Feb. 23, seven months earlier than scheduled. Scholz has been ruling in a minority government since he sacked Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats last month over a budget dispute, dismantling the three-party coalition. With his Social Democrats in third place in the polls — behind Friedrich Merz’s conservative bloc and the far-right AfD — his prospects for reelection look dim.