Angela Merkel’s era ends in Germany with a new deal.
German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz on Wednesday said he had reached an agreement with the Liberal Democrats and the Greens to form a new coalition government that would bring the curtain down on the Angela Merkel era.
Under the 177-page agreement signed after two months of negotiations, the three parties want to accelerate public investment in green technology and digitalisation while returning to strict debt limits from 2023 onward.
The agreement would establish Germany’s first federal coalition between the Social Democratic Party (SPD), libertarian Liberal Democrats (FDP) and ecologist Greens, and end 16 years of The conservative government, led by Mrs. Merkel, marks a new era for relations with Europe and the rest of the world.
“We want to make more progress,” Scholz told a news conference in Berlin accompanied by FDP and Greens leaders. “We will invest massively in Germany to stay ahead.”
Merkel left large shoes to fill. She has led Germany and Europe through many crises and is an advocate for liberal democracy in the face of growing authoritarianism around the world.
Her critics say she managed rather than solved the problems and left her successor with difficult decisions on many fronts.
The coalition – named the traffic light coalition after the three parties’ respective colors – holds a majority in the lower house and expects the government to be sworn in early next month after the parties ratify the coalition pact.
It faces immediate challenges, with Germany facing its worst COVID-19 spike and Europe grappling with the fallout from Brexit and a crisis at the EU’s borders. with Belarus.
