After 16 years with Angela Merkel at the helm, Olaf Scholz was named Germany’s new chancellor on Wednesday, as a new centre-left-led coalition gained control of Europe’s largest economy.
Scholz, who received 395 of the 707 votes cast in the lower house of the Bundestag, has promised “continuity” with Merkel while making Germany greener and fairer.
Scholz removed his black corona mask to respond “yes” when parliament speaker Baerbel Bas asked if he accepted the election, and subsequently received bouquets of flowers from MPs.
Scholz was then whisked away in a vehicle to Berlin’s Bellevue Palace by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to be officially proclaimed Germany’s ninth postwar chancellor before being sworn in in the Reichstag parliament building.
Under Merkel’s leadership, the finance minister led his Social Democrats to victory in the September 26 election, an outcome that was inconceivable at the start of the year due to the party’s festering splits and low support.
Scholz, 63, has pieced together Germany’s first national “traffic light” coalition with the environmentalist Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, termed after their respective colors.
Their four-year agreement, signed late last month, is dubbed “Dare for More Progress,” a reference to Willy Brandt’s landmark commitment to “Dare for More Democracy” in 1969.
“We have an opportunity for a fresh beginning for Germany,” Scholz told his party over the weekend as it voted 99 percent in favor of the coalition deal.
The coalition aspires to reduce carbon emissions, modernize citizenship rules, raise the minimum wage, and have Germany join a small group of countries around the world that have legalized marijuana.
Scholz was praised by French President Emmanuel Macron, who promised that “we will write the next chapter together,” while EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen expressed her enthusiasm for working together for a “strong Europe.”
Russia is promising “productive ties” to the new government, according to Vladimir Putin.
