German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder engineered his own defeat in a parliamentary vote of confidence today in a bid to force elections he hopes will return him to power with a new mandate for reform.
Mr Schroeder called for the vote after his Social Democratic Party (SPD), facing criticism over record unemployment and deeply unpopular economic reforms, suffered a string of humiliating defeats in regional polls.
However, critics who see Mr Schroeder's confidence vote as a political trick said they would ask Germany's highest court to block early elections, which opinion polls suggest the SPD would lose to the Christian Democrats, led by Angela Merkel.
The 601-strong lower house voted 296-151 against the government, with 148 abstentions, Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse announced after a highly-charged two-hour debate, characterised by fierce partisan attacks.
Of the abstentions, 140 were members of Mr Schroeder's SPD acting on party instructions, with the remaining eight from their coalition partners, the Greens.
Mr Schroeder, 61, had called on parliament in a speech watched throughout the country to open the way for new elections, saying his government needed a mandate to continue its economic reform drive. He said he lacked the necessary support in parliament and faced opposition even in his own party.
“If we are to continue with this agenda, a mandate through new elections is needed,” a grim Mr Schroeder said. “We need clarity. That is why I am putting the motion of confidence.“
However, for the vote to take place as planned on September 18 constitutional hurdles need to be cleared.
President Horst Koehler, the only person with the power to dissolve parliament, must first decide whether Mr Schroeder's unusual scheme to deliberately lose the confidence vote conforms with the constitution.