BERLIN -Germany's ruling Social Democrats on Monday officially made Chancellor Olaf Scholz their lead candidate for the upcoming snap election, two party sources said, giving him a chance at a second term despite overseeing the collapse of his coalition.

The announcement comes after popular Defence Minister Boris Pistorius ruled himself out of the running last Thursday, putting an end to weeks of speculation over whether he should lead the SPD into the election instead of Scholz.

The SPD party executive committee unanimously voted for Scholz as chancellor candidate, the party sources said.

Scholz, the least popular chancellor in Germany since reunification in 1990, has an uphill battle ahead of him if he wants to win the election which is expected to take place on Feb. 23.

His SPD is currently polling in third place. A survey by pollster INSA published on Saturday put the party on 14% behind the opposition conservatives on 32% and far-right Alternative for Germany on 19%.

Scholz is also less popular than the conservatives' chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz, although by a much smaller margin - with a poll by Wahlen putting him on 39% versus Merz on 44%.

Support for the chancellor and his party slumped in recent years amid infighting within the fractious three-way coalition, which collapsed earlier this month due to differences over how to revive the ailing economy.

  - Reuters