: Scholz Elected by Parliament to Become German Chancellor #WorldNEWS Olaf Scholz was elected chancellor by Germany’s parliament, clearing the way for the Social Democrat to take charge of tackling

Scholz Elected by Parliament to Become German Chancellor #WorldNEWS
Olaf Scholz was elected chancellor by Germany’s parliament, clearing the way for the Social Democrat to take charge of tackling a brutal Covid-19 outbreak and a raft of geopolitical challenges including the standoff over Ukraine.
He will be sworn in later on Wednesday, ending Angela Merkel’s 16-year tenure and becoming the country’s ninth chancellor since World War II. The outcome in the Bundestag wasn’t in doubt because of his three-party coalition’s majority.
The 63-year-old, Merkel’s vice chancellor for the past four years, represents renewal at the top—but not too much. Voters who awarded him a narrow victory in the Sept. 26 election saw much of what they liked in Merkel—a steady hand and competent, if not charismatic, leadership.
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He’ll preside over his inaugural cabinet meeting this evening, taking over after Merkel asserted Germany’s status as the paramount power broker in the European Union and one of the leading countries in the West. Scholz will have to learn how to apply Germany’s leverage amid threats on Europe’s eastern frontier and the ascendancy of China as a superpower.
He’ll also have to deal with mounting pressure from the U. S. over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline connecting Russia with Germany’s north coast. The U. S. will push Germany to agree to stop the almost-completed project if Russian President Vladimir Putin invades Ukraine, according to documents seen by Bloomberg and people familiar with the plans.
“Clearly Russia has the ability to blackmail Germany and Europe,” Marcel Fratzscher, president of Germany’s DIW economic research institute, said Wednesday in a Bloomberg TV interview. “My hunch at the moment is this pipeline will not take off, that it will be blocked permanently. ”
Scholz has already demonstrated domestic political prowess, deftly assembling a government with two other parties with sharply diverging policies—the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats.
The coalition, which holds 416 of the Bundestag’s 736 seats, was forged more quickly and seamlessly than most political observers in Berlin expected. During the vote on Wednesday, Scholz received 395 of the 707 votes cast.
The 177-page coalition accord bears the finger prints of each party. The SPD secured a minimum-wage increase to 12 euros (. 50) an hour and pension guarantees; the Greens brought the country’s coal-exit date forward to 2030; and the FDP won out on a promise not to raise taxes and to preserve constitutional debt limits.
But political fights are baked in. The Greens have vowed to push Germany to the forefront of the battle against climate change, with billions in investments to expand renewable resources on the path to carbon neutrality by 2045.