Protocol - Steinmeier prepares to release the Scholz government

Federal President Steinmeier has asked Chancellor Scholz to continue his duties even after the government's planned dismissal today.

"In the coming years, it is not only the responsibility of the new government majority, but also of all the Bundestag parliamentary groups, to discuss each other respectfully and constructively and to find solutions that will serve all the citizens of our country," Steinmeier stressed during the ceremony.

If the new Bundestag meets today, the old government will be dismissed. This is what the Basic Law provides for. But Germany will not be governmentless.