Who is German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and what can we expect from his leadership?
Center-left leader Olaf Scholz on Wednesday became Germany's ninth post-World War II chancellor, opening a new era for the European Union’s most populous nation and largest economy, after Angela Merkel’s 16-year tenure. He also has to co-drive, together with Emmanuel Macron, the motor of the EU: the pivotal French-German relationship.
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Scholz’s government takes office with high hopes of modernising Germany and combating climate change but faces the immediate challenge of handling the country’s toughest phase yet of the coronavirus pandemic.
Lawmakers voted 395-303 with six abstentions to elect Scholz – a comfortable majority – though short of the 416 seats his three-party coalition holds in the 736-seat lower house of parliament. Merkel, who is no longer a member of parliament, looked on from the spectators’ gallery as parliament voted. Lawmakers gave her a standing ovation.
Olaf Scholz was born in Osnabrück in 1958, grew up in Hamburg and is married.
He has served as Minister of Finance and Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany since March 2018. In 1985, he completed his law degree at the University of Hamburg. He joined the SPD in 1975 and was a member of the German Bundestag from 1998 to 2001 and from 2002 to 2011.
Scholz became Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in 2007, and from 2011 to 2018, he served as Mayor of Hamburg. From February until April 2018, he was acting chair of the SPD.
He could be characterized as typically associated with burghers, or the ruling class, in his home city of Hamburg: pragmatic, plain-spoken (“I’m liberal, but not stupid,” he was famously quoted when talking on law and order) and Protestant - no alcohol was served at his goodbye party at Hamburg’s city hall, because it was a "working day."
Scholz, 63, who had been Germany's vice chancellor and finance minister since 2018, brings a wealth of experience and discipline to an untried coalition of his center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats.
The three parties are portraying the combination of former rivals as a progressive alliance that will bring new energy to the country after Merkel's near-record time in office.
'North-east German mentality'
Scholz said Wednesday that he would stick with Merkel's “north-east German mentality” and that “not so much would change on that front”.
The new government aims to step up efforts against climate change by expanding the use of renewable energy and bringing Germany's exit from coal-fired power forward from 2038, “ideally” to 2030.
It also wants to do more to modernise the country of 83 million people, including improving its notoriously poor cellphone and internet networks.
Scholz has signaled continuity in foreign policy, saying the government would stand up for a strong European Union and nurture the transatlantic alliance. He makes his first trip abroad to Paris on Friday, maintaining a tradition for German chancellors, travel to Brussels the same day to meet EU and NATO leaders.
'De-escalation'
Preparing the Friday meet, German and French top diplomats already met.
French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian emphasised the importance of the Franco-German relationship at a press conference after a meeting with his newly elected German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris on Thursday.
He said the relationship between the two countries was "vital" for both nations' populations and also important for the EU.
The minister also called on France and Germany to "promote multilateralism", adding "by preserving the instruments that contribute to international stability, but which are in danger of being called into question".
He pointed to efforts to ensure the Non-Proliferation Treaty with Iran is "preserved and strengthened", with the help of the EU and the UN.
German Foreign Minister Baerbock starts her first foreign visit in Paris, where she stresses the importance of the Franco-German friendship: "You can count on Germany, its new government and me personally," Baerbock tells French FM Le Drian. pic.twitter.com/2MznSkMTQ3
— Alexandra von Nahmen (@AlexandravonNah) December 9, 2021
Russian threat
Le Drian also said the two discussed Ukraine, amid Russian military mobilisation near the Ukraine-Russian border.
He said "we must seek de-escalation", before welcoming dialogue between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Le Drian repeated his will "to provoke at ministerial level, as soon as possible", a Normandy Format with his Ukrainian and Russian colleagues on the basis of the Minsk agreements.
The Normandy Format are talks involving the representatives of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
(With wires)
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