Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) has nominated Chancellor Olaf Scholz as its main candidate in February's snap general election, AFP reports.
Earlier this month, the ruling three-party coalition led by the SPD collapsed.
The SPD's federal executive council backed Scholz, days after Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he would not run for chancellor. Scholz has yet to be formally confirmed at the party conference on 11 January.
Elections are due to be held seven months earlier than planned following the collapse of Scholz's coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) in early November.
Although he won his party's nomination, Scholz faces a difficult task as polls currently show the SPD garnering only around 15% of the vote.
Scholz is the face of a failed government marked by constant controversy, the news magazine Der Spiegel said, describing him as "probably the weakest, most unsuitable candidate for the chancellorship the SPD has ever offered".
The main opposition conservatives, the CDU-CSU alliance, are far ahead in opinion polls with 33%, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is on 18%. | BGNES
