Schulz was finance minister in Merkel’s fourth government, and was nominated by the party to run in the parliamentary elections for the chancellor of Germany.
Schulz heads a government made up of his Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Greens, an alliance of parties that has never been seen before at the federal level in Germany.
The new chancellor of Germany took the position of deputy head of the party’s youth organization, and began his work as a lawyer specializing in labor issues in Hamburg.
He stepped down as general secretary in 2004, became party leader in the Bundestag, and later joined Merkel’s first government in 2007 as Minister for Labor and Social Affairs.
In 2009 “Schulz” left the SPD after the 2009 elections, and returned to lead the SPD in Hamburg.
He was also elected Vice-President of the Social Democratic Party, led his party to victory in the Hamburg state elections in 2011, and became the first mayor, a position he held until 2018.
The main challenges and foreign policy
Ayman Samir, a specialist in international affairs at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, says that the biggest internal crises that “Schulz” will face is the Corona pandemic, because Germany and its performance since the beginning of the pandemic have not been at the level that the German citizen expected.
He added in exclusive statements to “Sky News Arabia” that the main responsibility of the new government is to strike a balance between achieving economic growth on the one hand, and a major shift towards a green economy on the other hand.
And he continues, “With the participation of the Green Party, and especially that the Foreign Minister, who is the party leader, and the second foreign minister belonging to the Green Party in German history, she will push to allocate a large part of the budget to focus on issues such as global warming, climate change and the green economy.”
He pointed out that “the government’s plan may create some problems at home with regard to energy provision, especially since Germany is currently suffering from an energy shortage crisis, and is trying to compensate for it through the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which can be stopped at any moment if any conflict erupts between Russia and Ukraine or between Belarus and Poland.
He explained that there is another crisis, which is “the idea of leading Europe after the pandemic and Brexit, because there is uncertainty in the ability of the new chancellor to cooperate fully with French President Emmanuel Macron to lead Europe,” as he put it.
And he added, “The issue of integration and the presentation of opinions related to immigrants is also one of the crises, and the Social Socialist Party that makes up the government, by its nature, tends to be open to immigration, but it was noted in the last speech of Schulz and his party and even the coalition with his caution in the issue of refugees, but Schulz will present a vision related to legal immigration and its facilitation to Germany, expressing Some reservations about illegal immigration.
Relationship with America
Regarding the relationship with America, the specialist in international relations expected that it would be better during the era of US President Joe Biden and Schulz, because the policy of the German Socialist Party closely resembles the same ideology as the American Democratic Party.
As for the Middle East, he considered that the relationship would be strong, too, given the belief of the German coalition and the ruling party in partnership with the Middle East and the Mediterranean region.
And he concluded: “The speech by Schulz in the European Union or the head of the Green Party and the Minister of Foreign Affairs has always been positive towards the Middle East.”
.