By Friederike Heine and Andreas Rinke
BERLIN (Reuters) -The German parliament accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz's invitation to withdraw its confidence in him and his government on Monday, clearing the way for an early election on Feb. 23 necessitated by the collapse of his government.
Scholz's three-party coalition fell apart last month after the pro-market Free Democrats quit in a row over debt, leaving his Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens without a parliamentary majority just as Germany faces a deepening economic crisis.
Under rules designed to prevent the instability that facilitated the rise of fascism in the 1930s, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can only dissolve parliament and call an election if the chancellor calls, and loses, a confidence vote.
The debate preceding the vote also opened serious campaigning for the election, with party leaders trading ill-tempered barbs.
The chancellor and his conservative challenger Friedrich Merz, who surveys suggest is likely to replace him, charged each other with incompetence and lack of vision.
Scholz, who will head a caretaker government until a new one can be formed, defended his record as a crisis leader who had dealt with the economic and security emergency triggered by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
If given a second term, he said, he would invest heavily in Germany's creaking infrastructure rather than making the spending cuts he said the conservatives wanted.
"Shortsightedness might save money in the short term, but the mortgage on our future is unaffordable," said Scholz, who served four years as finance minister under a previous coalition with the conservatives before becoming chancellor in 2021.
Merz told Scholz his spending plans would burden future generations and accused him of failing to deliver on promises of rearmament after the start of the Ukraine war.
"Taking on debt at the cost of the young generation, spending money - and you didn't say the word 'competitiveness' once," said Merz.
Neither mentioned the constitutional spending cap, a measure designed to ensure fiscal responsibility that many economists blame for the fraying state of Germany's infrastructure.
CONSERVATIVES IN CLEAR LEAD IN OPINION POLLS
The conservatives have a comfortable, albeit narrowing lead of more than 10 points over the SPD in most polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is slightly ahead of Scholz's party, while the Greens are in fourth place.
The mainstream parties have refused to govern with the AfD, but its presence complicates the parliamentary arithmetic, making unwieldy coalitions more likely.
Scholz has outlined a list of measures that could pass with opposition support before the election, including 11 billion euros ($11 billion) in tax cuts and an increase in child benefits already agreed on by former coalition partners.
The conservatives have also hinted they could back measures to better protect the Constitutional Court from the machinations of a future populist or anti-democratic government and to extend a popular subsidised transport ticket.
Measures to ease unintended burdens on taxpayers could also pass if regional governments agree, but Merz rejected a Green proposal to cut energy prices, saying he wanted a totally new energy policy.
Robert Habeck, the Greens' chancellor candidate, said that was a worrying sign for German democracy, given the growing likelihood in a fractured political landscape that very different parties would again have to govern together.
"It's very unlikely the next government will have it easier," Habeck said.
AfD leader Alice Weidel called for all Syrian refugees in Germany to be sent back following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime.
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