Merkel successor free#

“Every vaccination helps.”Īpproximately 104,000 Germans have succumbed to COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. “Get vaccinated, no matter whether it’s a first vaccination or a booster,” she said in one weekly video message.

Merkel spent much of her final days in office urging all Germans to get vaccinated. JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves the Chancellery on December 8, 2021. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right) gives a bouquet of flowers to his predecessor, Angela Merkel, following the transfer of power in Berlin on December 8, 2021. However, Scholz must first contend with growing concerns about the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which has led Germany to implement tough new restrictions largely targeting unvaccinated people - as well as consider a general vaccine mandate.

Merkel successor free#

The three parties - Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens, and the centrist Free Democrats - have cast themselves as a progressive alliance that will bring new energy to the country after Merkel’s near-record time in office. A former mayor of Hamburg, Scholz had served as Germany’s vice chancellor and finance minister since 2018. Scholz, 63, takes office as the head of a three-party coalition that netted a total of 416 Bundestag seats in September’s parliamentary elections.

Merkel, no longer a member, watched from the spectator gallery and received a standing ovation from lawmakers. ‘Lost irretrievably’: German police find melted-down gold in search for stolen ancient Celtic coinsĪngela Merkel’s 16-year tenure as Germany’s chancellor formally ended Wednesday with the 67-year-old fist-bumping successor Olaf Scholz following the official handover ceremony.Įarlier Wednesday, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, voted 395-303 with six abstentions to make Scholz the country’s ninth post-World War II leader. German trucker rams into climate protester blocking intersection, drags him to side of roadīavaria’s Schloss Elmau resort is fit for a king - or a president Body of a hiker missing 37 years unearthed by thawing glacier