By Michael Nienaber
BERLIN (Reuters) – Parliamentarians elected Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) as chancellor on Wednesday, ending 16 years of conservative government under Angela Merkel and paving the way for a pro-European coalition government that promises to strengthen green investment.
Scholz, 63, who served as deputy chancellor and finance minister in the coalition with Merkel, won a clear majority of 395 votes from members of the lower house of parliament, House Speaker Baerbel Bas said.
+OECD unemployment rate in October stands at 5.7%
Wearing a black mask, Scholz waved to a standing ovation by parliamentarians and received bouquets of flowers and a basket of apples from the leaders of the parliamentary groups.
Adhering to democratic procedures enshrined in the German Basic Law, Scholz was formally appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Bellevue Palace and then returned to Parliament to take the oath of office in front of parliamentarians.
In the afternoon, Merkel will officially hand over the chancellery to the country’s new leader, who is facing a brutal fourth wave of coronavirus infections and authoritarian government challenges to the democratic order.
With his down-to-earth and pragmatic stance, Scholz is positioned as Merkel’s natural successor and a firm hand to steer Germany through challenges such as tackling the climate crisis and dealing with a more aggressive Russia and an increasingly assertive China.
Scholz will lead an unprecedented triple-government coalition at the federal level with the pro-spending environmental Greens and the fiscally more conservative Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), unlikely political partners in the past.
He is an experienced negotiator and veteran politician who, as SPD general secretary from 2002 to 2004, championed controversial labor market reforms and welfare cuts under the leadership of then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
As labor minister from 2007 to 2009, period of Merkel’s first coalition, Scholz pushed for a generous temporary employment scheme that helped protect millions of employees from the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
After being mayor of Hamburg, the northern port city, between 2011 and 2018, Scholz returned to Berlin as Merkel’s finance minister, a role in which he scrapped the goal of balanced budgets and allowed record new loans to shield companies and employees from the impact of coronavirus pandemic.
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