SOCIAL Democrat Olaf Scholz was on Wednesday sworn in as Germany’s ninth post-World War II chancellor, ending 16 years of conservative rule under Angela Merkel and paving the way for a pro-European coalition government which has vowed to boost green investment.
“It will be a new beginning for our country. In any case I will do everything to work towards that,” the 63-year-old said as he took his oath of office in an official handover ceremony in the Berlin parliament.
Scholz was elected chancellor after a secret ballot in which he won 395 out of 707 German lawmaker’s votes.
Scholz will lead Germany’s first federal “traffic light” coalition, made up of the SPD, the ecologist Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and named for the parties’ colours.
As Germany’s new chancellor, Scholz will lead Europe’s largest economy which is currently facing a brutal fourth wave of coronavirus infections.
The SPD-Greens-FDP coalition sealed a
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