'Traffic Light' Shines as Olaf Scholz Set to Take Over as German Chancellor
The elevation of Scholz brings curtains down on Merkel's 31-year political career.
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Germany has got a new leader after a decade and a half with SDP leader Olaf Scholz on Wednesday, 8 December, getting confirmed as the new Chancellor, bringing an end to the Angela Merkel era.
Scholz, 63, who will helm the three-party "traffic light" coalition – so named due to the colours of the constituent parties – SPD (red), Free Democrats (yellow), and the Greens, received 395 votes to 303 in the Bundestag and was subsequently given a standing ovation, the BBC reported.
He was then formally appointed as the ninth Federal Chancellor by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The elevation of Scholz, who was Vice-Chancellor in the Merkel dispensation, brings curtains down on Merkel's 31-year political career.
His 16-strong Cabinet is likely to include as many women as men.
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