(Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and opposition lawmakers are close to an agreement on holding early elections in February, according to government officials who follow the talks closely and asked not to be named due to secret planning.

Scholz, who dissolved the ruling coalition he formed with the Greens and Free Democrats last week, will first need to trigger a national vote by resorting to a vote of confidence in the lower house of parliament. That vote is likely to be held in the first half of December, and if the chancellor loses it he could ask the president to dissolve parliament and set an election date within 60 days.

Carsten Linnemann, general secretary of the opposition Christian Democratic Union, told broadcaster ZDF on Tuesday that early elections could be held on February 16 or 23.

“New elections are needed as soon as possible,” he said.

Scholz has signaled he is open to holding a confidence vote before Christmas, after initially targeting mid-January. He said an accelerated timeframe would depend on an agreement between his party’s parliamentary leaders and two groups that support his rival, Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz, who is seeking the chancellorship.

Europe’s largest economy was plunged into political uncertainty last week after Scholz sacked Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democratic Party and dissolved the ruling coalition over a dispute over borrowing money to increase military support for Ukraine.

While polls suggest Merz is ahead in the election, Scholz expressed confidence on Sunday that he can win, saying he is defying poor poll numbers before winning the chancellorship in 2021. He also said he expects his party to support him to run for another term.

(Updates with comments from opposition MPs from third paragraph.)

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