Olaf Scholz to become German Chancellor tomorrow

GERMANY: Germany’s Parliament will officially elect Olaf Scholz on Wednesday as the country’s next Chancellor, bringing the curtain down on Angela Merkel’s 16-year reign and ushering in a new political era with the centre-left in charge.

Scholz led his Social Democrats to victory against Merkel’s conservative CDU-CSU bloc in an epochal election in September, as the veteran chancellor prepared to leave politics after four consecutive terms in office. Together with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, Scholz’s SPD managed in a far shorter time than expected to forge a coalition that aspires to make Germany greener and fairer.

“I want the 20s to be a time of new beginnings,” Scholz told Die Zeit weekly, declaring an ambition to push forward “the biggest industrial modernisation which will be capable of stopping climate change caused by mankind”.

– FRANCE 24