EFE.- The Social Democrat Olaf Scholz was elected this Wednesday as Federal Chancellor by the German Parliament (Bundestag), where his party and his future government allies, the Greens and the Liberal Party (FDP) have the majority.
The election of the new chancellor puts an end to the 16-year term in power of the conservative Angela Merkel.
Scholz, 63, Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister in the last grand coalition, was inaugurated by the Federal Parliament (Bundestag), two and a half months after the general elections and after a successful negotiation process in search of government partners.
He obtained the support of 395 deputies, compared to 303 against and 6 abstentions. The alliance between his Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Liberal Party (FDP) adds 416 out of 736 seats in the Bundestag, although the number of deputies present was 707.
It was, according to German practice, a sober investiture session, which opened with a greeting from the Speaker of the House, the Social Democrat Bärbal Bas, who then welcomed Merkel, assistant from the deputies’ rostrum, as well as former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
The greeting was followed by a long standing ovation, with the deputies standing and facing Merkel, who no longer sits among the parliamentarians. Her retirement from politics included resigning as a candidate for her northeastern district again, after thirty years as a deputy.
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This circumstance made Merkel unable to comply with the custom of being the first to shake hands with her successor, as it has been with all her predecessors – including less harmonious successions, such as that of the Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt for the conservative Helmut Kohl, via vote censorship.
The replacement between Scholz and Merkel has been an exercise in fair play between these two politicians representing centrism, albeit from opposite political families.
Scholz’s Cabinet, the most equal
The investiture followed the signing, on Tuesday, of the coalition pact between the three formations, which in the preceding days had separately ratified the agreement negotiated between their leadership.
The new government will be the most equal in the history of Germany, since eight of its 16 ministries will be occupied by women, including the four that concern national security and foreign policy: Foreign Affairs, Interior, Defense and Development Aid.
The Social Democratic Party (SPD), the most voted force in the general elections with 25.7%, corresponds to seven ministries, in addition to the Chancellery. The hallmark of the party is on Labor and Social Affairs, whose head is still Hubertus Heil, and the new Ministry of Housing, for Klara Geywitz.
The first is responsible for carrying out the promise of raising the minimum interprofessional salary from the current 9.5 euros to 12 euros. Second, to address the main concern of many Germans, access to decent housing, for which the construction of 400,000 homes per year will be supported, of which 100,000 with public investment.
The most committed ministry of the moment, Health, will be occupied by the epidemiology expert Karl Lauterbach, defender of the utmost caution and the mandatory vaccine against Covid, which has made him a preferred target of anti-vaccine and far-right attacks.
Complex balance between greens and liberals
The Greens, who got 14.8% in the general election, will have five portfolios, including Economy and Climate, for their co-chair and new vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, while their co-chair, Annalena Baerbock, will occupy Foreign Affairs.
The first promises to drive an industrial transformation towards the green economy; the second will try to mark its own line in Foreign Affairs, the ministry that the Greens are recovering after their only experience so far in a federal government, as Schröder’s partners, and with Joschka Fischer as head of German diplomacy.
The FPD, with 11.5% in those elections, was assigned four ministries, one of which, Finance, holds the key to practically everything in the European power. It will be occupied by its leader, Christian Lindner, who defends the debt ceiling and, at the same time, the no to all tax increases.
Scholz will have to grapple between the two partners, whom Merkel failed to agree in 2017 to be her coalition partners.
The Greens acted as a reliable partner in both Schröder legislatures (1998/2005). The FDP can act as an internal opposition within the government, a function that, in the last Merkel grand coalition, the Bavarian Social Christian Union (CSU) exercised compared to its parent party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
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