Merkel era nears end as Scholz is put forward as new German chancellor
Olaf Scholz is poised to replace Angela Merkel as Germany’s Chancellor as he takes up the reins of a three-party coalition.
Scholz’s party, the centre-left Social Democrats have been negotiating with the Green Party and the pro-business Free Democrats since narrowly winning a national election on 26 September. At a press conference earlier today Scholz confirmed that the parties have agreed he will succeed Ms Merkel, who did not run for a fifth term and has led Europe’s largest economy for 16 years.
A greener vision for Germany’s future has been set out by the new coalition. For one, the parties aim to phase out coal use by 2030, eight years ahead of schedule.
Two per cent of German territory will be allocated for wind power and hydrogen with the goal of sourcing 80 per cent of Germany’s electricity from renewable energy by 2030.
Scholz, 63, who has served as vice-chancellor to Angela Merkel and the country’s finance minister since 2018, said “sovereignty of Europe is a cornerstone of our foreign policy” and stressed the importance of the nation’s friendship with France and partnership with the US.
The new government will not seek “the lowest common denominator, but the politics of big impacts,” Scholz promised.
With Olaf’s ascendency all but confirmed by the coalition a first draft of Germany’s new cabinet has reportedly been penned.
While few details have emerged from the closed-doors talks, documents seen by Bloomberg indicate that Christian Lindner, the head of the pro-business Free Democrats, would be tapped as finance minister and Robert Habeck, the co-leader of the Greens, would become a “super minister” in charge of economy, climate protection and energy transition. Both the politicians would also be vice chancellors.
A preliminary agreement reached last month further revealed that Germany’s coalition government could bring forward its deadline for ending the use of coal-fuelled power from 2038 to 2030, while expanding the rollout of renewable energy generation.
The parties have said they will present their coalition agreement at a news conference at 3pm local time in Berlin.