The chancellor did WHAT?

[ridicully]

Part of my mind is completely freaked out about the new date for the elections. It's the part of my mind that equals any changes to the established democratic process with the Weimar Republic.
The other part is horrified that it has to decide who to vote for in four months rather than a year and four months.

Comments

Re: I've been digging through my notes from school and the newspapers. I now feel informed.

[king-chiron.livejournal.com]

My understanding was that the President can dissolve the government before the end of the term, and Schroeder plans to ask Koehler to do just that after he loses the confidence vote.

I had also read that while this wasn't very common, it had been done before by Kohl in 1982 and Brandt in 1972 and that while it was challenged in the courts, it was upheld.

Re: I've been digging through my notes from school and the newspapers. I now feel informed.

[ridicully]

As far as I remember it was only Kohl and the highest court explicitily stated that another instance of a faked loss of the confidence vote would not be tolerated. That's why they're also talking about a change of the constitution as another possible way to have new elections in September.

But I'm relying more or less on only two news sites for this particular bit of information, so I may be wrong.