Berlin, 25 November 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Around three months ahead of Germany's early elections, the country's Social Democrats are set to formally nominate Olaf Scholz as their chancellor candidate, in spite of his abysmal approval ratings.

His formal nomination comes after the party was divided by two weeks of heated debate over whether the much more popular Defence Minister Boris Pistorius should be swapped in as a replacement candidate for Scholz, who faced calls from within his centre-left party to bow out.

It was only on Thursday that Pistorius openly confirmed he would not stake a claim to the chancellor candidacy, thus paving the way for Scholz's nomination.

The defence minister is one of 33 voting members of the party executive who will decide on the chancellor's nomination on Monday.

Scholz is the third chancellor candidate to be put forward by his party for the upcoming election on February 23, after CDU/CSU leader Friedrich Merz and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck for the Greens.

On December 7, the executive board of the far-right AfD are set to nominate party leader Alice Weidel as its chancellor candidate. This means that for the first time there will be four chancellor candidates in a federal election.

Photo: EPA