By Tyler Durden
By Deborah Cole of TheLocal.de
German lawmakers elected Social Democrat Olaf Scholz as chancellor on Wednesday, ending 16 years of conservative rule under Angela Merkel and paving the way for a pro-European government that has promised to boost green investment. Scholz, 63, took the oath of office in the chamber of the Bundestag lower house of parliament from speaker Bärbel Bas, after his election by MPs with 395 out of 707 votes cast.
He will lead Germany’s first federal “traffic light” coalition, made up of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the ecologist Greens and the liberal Free Democrats and named for the parties’ colors. When he was elected by parliament earlier in the day, speaker Bas asked whether he accepted the election. A beaming Scholz nodded and then received bouquets of flowers from MPs to congratulate him.
Scholz was then whisked by motorcade to Berlin’s Bellevue Palace and officially named Germany’s chancellor by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier His new cabinet was also set to be sworn in on Wednesday.
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