German Parliament elects Olaf Scholz as the new Federal Chancellor

Germany – Berlin:
The SPD politician Olaf Scholz has been elected Chancellor. Scholz is the fourth social democratic chancellor in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. He received 395 of 707 votes cast. The traffic light has 416 votes.
The SPD politician Olaf Scholz has been elected ninth Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. He received 395 of 707 votes in a secret ballot in the Bundestag on Wednesday. There were 303 votes against and 6 abstentions. 369 votes were needed to elect the Social Democrat. The SPD, Greens and FDP, which form the first traffic light coalition in the federal government, together have 416 seats in parliament, which is 47 seats above the so-called chancellor majority.

Scholz accepted the choice. The first to hand him a bouquet of flowers was SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, then Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus. The defeated Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet also congratulated.

Scholz then receives his certificate of appointment from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace. This brings the era of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) to an end after 16 years.

Five CDU chancellors,
now four from the SPDThe 63-year-old is only the fourth SPD Chancellor in the history of the Federal Republic – after Willy Brandt (1969-1974), Helmut Schmidt (1974-1982) and Gerhard Schröder (1998-2005). The CDU has so far provided the four chancellors Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Helmut Kohl, and most recently Chancellor Merkel.
The latter followed the election of the Chancellor from the guest gallery in the plenary hall. When she was welcomed by Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) at the opening of the session, the MPs – with the exception of the AfD parliamentarians – stood up and applauded. The last SPD Chancellor Schröder had also come to the Bundestag with his wife. In the afternoon, Scholz will take over Merkel’s official duties in the Chancellery.

The SPD had won the federal election on September 26th and, after catching up, was the strongest force with 25.7 percent, ahead of the CDU / CSU (24.1 percent). Mathematically, a Jamaica alliance of the Union, the Greens and the FDP would have been possible. However, the two smaller parties opted for coalition negotiations with the SPD. Your then negotiated 177-page coalition agreement is under the motto “Dare to make more progress”.
GQ News Room: