The Social Democrat Olaf Scholz became Chancellor of Germany on Wednesday, December 8, a period referred to as a “new beginning,” after four terms (16 years) of Angela Merkel and he promised that “he will do everything possible to achieve it.”
Scholz received 395 votes in favor, against 303 and 6 abstentions in the Bundestag. It should be noted that he served as Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance.
The 63-year-old chancellor is part of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 1975, when I was a high school student. During the 1980s, he served as the party’s youth vice president, and the same position he held at the International Union of Socialist Youth from 1987 to 1989.
His academic training is in labor law and to 1998 he was elected as a deputy, marks the beginning in politics, he has also served as mayor of Hamburg (2011-2018), for 2018 he was part of Merkel’s cabinet.
According to the BBC, his pragmatic handling of the Covid-19 crisis earned him praise and high approval ratings. Since as Minister of Finance he supervised the 750 billion euro emergency financing package that the government prepared to help companies and workers survive the pandemic.
He led cabinet meetings when Angela Merkerl had to isolate herself, as a precautionary measure. And he himself refers that when he was questioned whether he would present his candidacy as chancellor, his answer was that he had to work and that he would not let himself be carried away by vanities.
He was born in Osnabrück, northern Germany, in 1958 and is married to Britta Ernst, Brandenburg Regional Minister of Education, who will continue to serve in accordance with what the German Chancellor has declared. The couple married in 1998 and have no children.
Among the challenges that will be faced is the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccination, climate crisis, among other issues that involve the nation.
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