The German electoral system faces an odd-ball challenge this fall - they dont have enough paper to print ballots. Ruth Brand‚ head of electoral commission made this surprising announcement after Olaf Scholzʼs government fell apart
Electoral officials claim its hard to get paper and handle printing tasks (which seems quite weird for a major European country). The timing is extra-tricky because of post-xmas holidays: “We need to think about practical issues before rushing into elections‚“ Brand wrote in her letter to the chancellor
The opposition isnt buying these paper-related excuses. Thorsten Frei from CDU party points out that France managed to organize voting in just 3 weeks last summer; while Carsten Linnemann calls the situation “totally embarassing“. The CDU wants voting done before next years US president takes office
Friedrich Merz‚ CDUs leader‚ refuses to play nice with Scholzʼs left-over plans - saying Germany cant have a no-majority government for months. After firing his finance guy and losing the Free Democrats support‚ Scholz had to give up his original idea of waiting till spring
Current polling numbers show:
* CDU leading with 33%
* Social Democrats at 16%
* Alternative for Germany also at 16%
The whole mess started when coalition partners quit the government‚ forcing talks about snap elections. Now officials will meet on monday to figure out if they can make it happen in january or march - assuming they find enough paper to print everything