Social Democrats to call confidence vote in government

The opposition Social Democrats say that they will call a vote of confidence in the current government after this autumn’s regional elections. At an extraordinary meeting of the party leadership on Saturday, the Social Democrats said that they would hold the vote in response to a recent blackmailing scandal which has exposed bitter rifts in the leading Civic Democratic Party. The current government has already survived three confidence votes in its term in office. This time round, the Social Democrats said that they were confident they could win such a vote, with the Communist Party, as well as dissatisfied Greens and Civic Democrat MPs potentially ready to vote out the government.