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Merkel’s party loses to German centre-left

Olaf Scholz might replace Merkel as German next chancellor

Published : Tuesday, 28 September, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 710

Merkel’s party loses to German centre-left

Merkel’s party loses to German centre-left

BERLIN, Sept 27: German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz vowed on Monday to strengthen the European Union and keep up the transatlantic partnership in a three-way coalition government he hopes to form by Christmas to take over from Angela Merkel's conservatives.
Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) came first in Sunday's national election, just ahead of the conservatives, and aim to lead a government for the first time since 2005 in a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
Scholz, 63, projected a sense of calm assurance when asked whether the close election result and the prospect of prolonged coalition negotiations sent a message of instability in Germany to its European partners.
The SPD, Germany's oldest party, won 25.7% of the vote, up five percentage points from the 2017 federal election, ahead of Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative bloc on 24.1%, provisional results showed. The Greens came in with 14.8% and the FDP won 11.5%.
The SPD's recovery marks a tentative revival for centre-left parties in parts of Europe, following the election of Democrat Joe Biden as U.S. president in 2020. Norway's centre-left opposition party also won an election earlier this month.
Olaf Scholz was once unflatteringly nicknamed "Scholzomat" (Scholzomaton) - but preliminary results in the federal election give him a narrow victory, and he has managed to put his old robot-like, technocratic image behind him.
As candidate for the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the 63-year-old former Hamburg mayor painted himself as continuity candidate, having served as Angela Merkel's deputy. His task now is to persuade two very different parties - the Greens and the liberals - to join him in a coalition.
The 63-year-old -- a life-long member of the SPD -- was born in what was then West Germany, a detail that sets him apart from Merkel, who grew up in East Germany. Scholz served as the Labor and Social Affairs minister in Merkel's first coalition government in the late 2000s.  In 2011 he was elected mayor of Hamburg, a position he held -- with high levels of support -- until 2018.
Since then, he has served as the vice-chancellor and finance minister in Merkel's grand coalition government, a powerful position in German national politics. His profile rose even further when he oversaw Germany's generous coronavirus compensation programs for businesses, employees and those who lost income because they had to quarantine during the pandemic.
Unlike Merkel, who has become a household name across the world during her long tenure, Scholz is not well known abroad -- beyond Brussels' political circles.  Speaking on Monday he said forming a stronger and more sovereign European Union, as well as working on the good relationship between Germany and the United States, would be his key foreign policy goals if he does become chancellor.  He added that as the world "becomes more dangerous," democratic countries must        cooperate.    -REUTERS, CNN








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