Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was preparing Friday to ask members of his Social Democrats and Greens coalition ally to vote against the government in a no-confidence motion aimed at forcing early German elections in September, reported dpa. Schroeder plans to abstain in the Bundestag lower chamber vote aimed at toppling his own government and Social Democratic Party (SPD) chief Franz Muentefering has requested all SPD members to do the same. Given that Schroeder would need 301 votes out of his 304 SPD and Greens members in the Bundestag to win a vote of confidence, the chancellor will gain the no-confidence decision he seeks, if just four members of the center-left alliance vote against him or abstain. The German leader, who is battling a weak economy and unemployment of over 11 per cent, called for early elections instead of waiting until the regular vote in autumn 2006 after his SPD was badly defeated in the industrial state of North Rhine-Westphalia last May. --more 1241 Local Time 0941 GMT
