Bundestag set to elect Scholz as new chancellor

(News report) BERLIN, Dec 8 (KUNA) -- The German federal parliament, better known as Bundestag, is poised to elect Wednesday center-left Social Democrats leader Olaf Scholz as Germany's new chancellor to succeed longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel, who remained in office between 2005 and 2021.
The move comes as Scholz's party made a narrow victory over its rivals the Christian Democratic Union during the recent parliamentary race held on September 26.
The vote was followed by hard consultations made by Scholz with the environmentalist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats, which culminated in a three-party deal to form a new German government under center-left leader Olaf Scholz.
The tripartite deal has set the scene for Scholz to succeed longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel, ending her 16-year tenure.
He will need the support of at least 369 lawmakers in the 736-seat lower house to take the top job. The three coalition partners have 416 seats between them, so he should be assured of a comfortable majority.
Under the agreement, the center-left Social Democrats will gain six portfolios, chiefly the ministries of interior and defense, in addition to the head of government.
On the other hand, the Greens will win five portfolios, mainly foreign affairs and economy, while the Free Democrats will gain four ministries, primarily finance.
Scholz, who is 63 years old, had pledged a gender-balanced Cabinet, saying that his own party's choices reflected the fact that women should "have half of the power".
He belongs to the right wing of the Social Democrats Party whose electoral platform is primarily based on defending the values of social justice and trade unions' interests.
Born in Lower Saxony on 14 June 1958, Scholz joined Social Democrats at a very early age when he was till 17 years, before starting to study law in 1985 and finding employment as a lawyer specializing in labor and employment law.
His rise to the political scene is due to the former German Chancellors Gerhard Shroder who handpicked Scholz in 2002 as the party's secretary-general, paving the way for him to become Hamburg mayor in 2011.
Scholz served as vice chancellor to Angela Merkel and as minister of Finance since March 2018.
He vowed that his government would seek to strengthen the European Union and define the relationship of Germany and EU with the United States as the bloc's key ally.
He affirmed that he would also work with France for formulating Europe's constitution, promoting the EU foreign and security chief's reforms and overhauling the vote at European bodies.
On security, he stressed that he would seek a European agreement on the sharing of refugees' hosting burdens among member states, and a uniform immigration agreement.
On the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Scholz said: "The pandemic is far from over," vowing that his government would do hard to break the fourth wave of the virus by adopting strict restrictions aiming at curbing the spreading of the bug.
German federal and state leaders last week announced tough new restrictions that largely target unvaccinated people. In a longer-term move, parliament will consider a general vaccine mandate. (end) anj.mt