Germans don't have enough paper for new elections

German's Electoral commission boss says carrying out 'printing orders' is a 'great challenge' amid collapse of Olaf Scholz's government

Early elections in Germany may not be possible because of a lack of paper, the head of the electoral commission has said.

Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, has caved to pressure to hold a snap election after initially planning to hold the vote five months after the collapse of his coalition government this week.

Ruth Brand, the president of the German electoral commission, told German television that it was a "great challenge in today's world to actually procure the paper and carry out the printing orders".

She warned against holding elections too soon after Christmas in comments that drew scorn from opposition politicians and Bild, Germany's best-selling newspaper. She has also written to Mr Scholz on the matter.

As parties need to decide on candidate lists and other organisational issues, holding the vote after a long run of public holidays would come with "incalculable risks", Ms Brand said.

"We must be careful not to make ourselves look ridiculous internationally with a debate at this level," said Thorsten Frei, of the opposition party Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which wants a vote held before the inauguration of Donald Trump in January.

The government collapsed on the same day Mr Trump, whose threatened tariffs would harm the stuttering German economy, won the election.

"The statements made by the Federal Election Commissioner are scandalous and shameful," Carsten Linnemann, the general secretary of CDU, told Bild.

"A country like Germany must be able to hold elections within 60 days."

Mr Frei said that France had held elections this summer after just three weeks.

Federal and state election officials will meet on Monday to discuss how to deal with the early elections in January or March.

The German chancellor said on Friday that he wanted to "quickly allow new elections" after initially insisting that he wanted to pass a raft on unratified legislation before taking the country to the polls.

Mr Scholz appeared to make his agreement to an early election conditional on the opposition backing legislation that was in the pipeline before he lost his majority.

In order for a general election to be held ahead of schedule, German law requires that a chancellor loses a vote of confidence, which then leads to the dissolution of parliament.

Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU, has refused to agree to support Mr Scholz's legislative agenda as a condition for quick elections.

Describing Mr Scholz as a "share without any value," he has said that Germany "cannot afford to have a government without a majority for months on end."

After months of bickering inside his three-way coalition with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, Mr Scholz fired his finance minister on Wednesday, a move that led to the Free Democrats resigning en masse from the government.

The chancellor initially set out a plan to hold an election in late March, saying he wanted to "pass bills that can't be delayed" beforehand.

In polling, the CDU are in the lead by 33 per cent, with Mr Scholz's Social Democratic Party and the hard-Right Alternative for Germany both on around 16 per cent.