Two thirds of German voters want prompt new elections: poll

BERLIN: About two thirds of German voters want snap elections as soon as possible after this week´s collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz´s ruling coalition, a poll showed on Friday.

Europe´s biggest economy was hurled into political turmoil when Scholz´s three-party alliance imploded after months of infighting on Wednesday, the day Donald Trump won the United States presidential election.

Centre-left leader Scholz has vowed to cling on in a minority government for now, and to ask for a confidence vote in mid-January that is likely to lead to snap elections in March.

But the conservative opposition CDU and all other major parties have demanded Scholz immediately pave the way for new elections -- a position shared by a majority of the electorate, according to a poll published Friday.

Some 65 percent of German voters are in favour of prompt new elections, while just 33 percent support Scholz´s timeline, according to the survey for public broadcaster ARD.

Germany´s motley coalition between the Social Democrats (SPD), the left-leaning Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) had become deeply unpopular in the run-up to the crash after months of bitter infighting.