German Chancellor Olaf Scholz continued to resist calls on Thursday for an immediate vote of confidence in his now minority government and snap elections as soon as January after the collapse of his centre-left coalition. Scholz insisted on a January 15 date for the vote of confidence in the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, which he is almost certain to lose, triggering early elections, which Scholz has suggested would be held in March 2025. The conservative politician hoping to replace Scholz as chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and his CDU/CSU bloc in the Bundestag demanded that the chance…