BERLIN: Germany’s Olaf Scholz was Monday officially named to lead his Social Democrats into February elections, but the embattled chancellor faces a tough fight to win a second term.

The way had been cleared for Scholz to become the SPD’s chancellor candidate after his popular defence minister, Boris Pistorius, ruled himself out of the race last week.

The SPD’s federal executive board unanimously backed 66-year-old Scholz on Monday, a decision expected to be confirmed at a party congress on January 11. The elections are to be held seven months earlier than scheduled after the collapse of Scholz’s coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) in early November.

Scholz said Monday that as head of the feuding three-party coalition, it had become “increasingly difficult to make decisions in difficult times, and that is why it was right that this government ended”.

“Now the citizens have their say, we are seeking their vote,” he added, accepting the party’s nomination.

Top issues for Germany would remain Russia’s war against Ukraine, bringing down high energy prices, modernising Germany’s ailing economy and guaranteeing good wages, pensions and social welfare, he said.

To meet all those challenges, Scholz said, his centre-left party would support a “change in the debt brake” that limits new state borrowing — a flashpoint issue that was at the heart of the coalition breakup.

The SPD leadership urged its members to close ranks behind Scholz — a risky gamble for Germany’s oldest political party, which is languishing at around 15 percent in opinion polls. News magazine Der Spiegel in a scathing commentary labelled him “probably the weakest, most unsuitable candidate for the chancellorship that the SPD has ever put forward”.