Why did the nazis set fire to the reichstag in 1933 just before the election?

The Reichstag fire (German: Reichstagsbrand, About this soundlisten was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler's government stated that Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was the culprit, and they attributed the fire to communist agitators in general—though a German court decided later that year that Van der Lubbe had acted alone, as he claimed. After the fire, the Reichstag Fire Decree was passed.