BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament on Monday, putting the European Union’s most populous member and biggest economy on course to hold an early election in late February.

Germany is expected to hold a snap election in February next year. Political turmoil at the heart of Europe is also taking place in France.

The early election does not serve to let voters decide on the big issues of the future, but to bring a government into power that is stable enough to enforce highly unpopular measures—social cuts, mass layoffs,