Download
Olaf Scholz sworn in as German chancellor
Updated 21:49, 08-Dec-2021
CGTN
Newly elected German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (L) is sworn in by Parliament President Baerbel Bas during a session of the German lower house of the parliament, or Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, December 8, 2021. /Reuters

Newly elected German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (L) is sworn in by Parliament President Baerbel Bas during a session of the German lower house of the parliament, or Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, December 8, 2021. /Reuters

Social Democrat Olaf Scholz was sworn in as Germany's ninth post-war chancellor on Wednesday, succeeding Angela Merkel as her 16 years in power came to an end.

Scholz, 63, took the oath of office in the chamber of the Bundestag lower house of parliament from speaker Baerbel Bas after his election by MPs with 395 out of 707 votes cast.

Scholz was formally nominated by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the nearby Bellevue Palace before returning to parliament to take the oath of office in front of lawmakers and become Germany's ninth chancellor since the end of World War II.

Back in Bellevue Palace, the new cabinet ministers received their appointment certificates from the president.

Merkel will officially hand over the chancellery to Scholz in the afternoon. 

Scholz will lead an unprecedented three-way ruling coalition on the federal level with the pro-spending, environmentalist Greens and the fiscally more conservative, libertarian Free Democrats (FDP) – unlikely political bedfellows in the past – as Germany faces a brutal fourth wave of coronavirus infections and challenges to its democratic order from authoritarian governments.

Scholz is an experienced negotiator and veteran politician who as SPD party secretary general from 2002 until 2004 defended controversial labor market reforms and social welfare cuts under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

As labor minister from 2007-2009 in Merkel's first ruling coalition, he pushed for a generous short-time work scheme that helped protect millions of workers from the fallout of the global financial crisis.

Scholz returned to Berlin as Merkel's finance minister after being mayor of the northern port city of Hamburg from 2011-2018. As finance minister, he got rid of the goal of balanced budgets and allowed record new borrowing to shield companies and employees from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

On the European stage, he worked closely with France and persuaded Merkel to support a debt-financed European Recovery Fund worth 800 billion euros (about $900 billion) to help the European Union member states hit hardest by COVID-19.

(With input from agencies)

Search Trends