Germany’s Olaf Scholz has taken over from Angela Merkel as the new Chancellor of Germany
Olaf Scholz has been voted as the new Chancellor of Germany today, i.e., Wednesday, December 8, 2021, bringing an end to 16 years of Former Chancellor – Angela Merkel in office.
Serving 4 consecutive terms, Merkel narrowly missed on becoming the longest serving post-war Chancellor, trailing Helmut Kohl by mere 10 days.
Scholz, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), won the secret vote in the Parliament after months of negotiations following the SPD’s narrow victory in September 2021’s federal elections. Scholz formed a 3-party coalition with the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats.
Following the ceremonial protocols, Scholz will go to see German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier who will nominate him as the new Chancellor. He has served as the Labor and Social Affairs Minister in Merkel’s first coalition government in the late 2000s. In 2011, he was elected mayor of Hamburg, a position he held until 2018.
Post that, he served as the Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister in Merkel’s grand coalition government. Despite belonging to different political parties, Scholz and Merkel have similar political ideologies. He is seen as a moderate and centrist, which has made him somewhat of an outlier within the SDP.
Scholz has a lot of issues to handle including provocations from Russia at Ukraine border. Although Russia has denied plans to invade its neighbour, Angela Merkel agreed with President of the United States (U.S.) – Joe Biden and the leaders of the United Kingdom (U.K.), France and Italy that they should adopt a joint strategy to respond by imposing “significant and severe harm on the Russian economy.
Taking it to twitter, Scholz tweeted (translated in English), “The #Aufbruch begins. If our government work works as well as our cooperation in the past few weeks, then there is a good time ahead of us. Right at the beginning we have a difficult task to tackle: fighting the #Corona crisis. That will take all of our strength.” Original tweet in German:
Der #Aufbruch beginnt. Wenn unsere Regierungsarbeit so gut funktioniert, wie die Zusammenarbeit in den vergangenen Wochen, liegt vor uns eine gute Zeit. Direkt zu Beginn müssen wir eine schwere Aufgabe bewältigen: die #Corona-Krise bekämpfen. Das wird unsere ganze Kraft fordern. pic.twitter.com/LO9ZuPNC9i
— Olaf Scholz (@OlafScholz) December 7, 2021
Another most important issue would be Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, which has been completed but is still awaiting approval from the German energy regulator. The U.S. officials say they have reached an understanding with Germany that the pipeline would be shut down, which would be a significant intervention.
Some other issues that he will be taking care of include Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, vaccination of citizens, the migration crisis, sanctions of Belarus, climate change by phasing out coal, the Nord-stream and threats to the rule of law from Poland and Hungary. Unlike Merkel, he is not well known abroad.
