German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a no-confidence vote Monday in the country's Parliament, paving the way for a snap election in February next year. Confidence votes in Germany are relatively rare.

Polls suggest that a February election will result in a rightward shift, at a moment when Europe’s largest economy is faltering.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost in a vote of confidence in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, on Monday. The move would dissolve Scholz's minority coalition government and trigger a process that would lead to early federal elections.