After about two months of negotiations, the leading candidate for the formation of the government on behalf of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has finished the job and will replace Chancellor Angela Merkel after 16 years in power, the parties announced today (Wednesday).
Schultz, 63, who served as Merkel's deputy, reached an agreement with his partners from the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which advocates economic freedom and the Green Party, in a coalition known as the "traffic light" because of the colors that symbolize the parties.
New Government Leaders, Photo: AFP
According to local reports, the government will focus on moving to a green economy while ensuring the reduction of the amount of carbon used in industry and replacing it with green energy by 2030. Also, plans for legalizing cannabis may be included in the coalition agreement, which is expected to be signed in the coming weeks.
Schultz will then be sworn in as German Chancellor.
Despite the understandings between the parties, the new government will have to deal with a global crisis in the form of the corona plague, which is breaking new records every day in Germany which is at the center of morbidity.
In the last day, almost 70,000 people have been infected with the virus, a trend that is still on the rise and whose end is not yet in sight.
Just a few days ago, German Health Minister Jens Schpan caused a stir when he addressed the crisis and bluntly warned that "at the end of winter the Germans will be vaccinated, recovering or dead".
"Vaccines are the way out of this epidemic," Schultz said during a presentation of the coalition agreement in Berlin.
"In facilities where particularly vulnerable groups are treated, we must make the vaccine mandatory. It remains to be considered an extension of this regulation," he added.
The Schultz-led Social Democrats won the election last September, after causing the worst defeat in the history of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) led by Armin Lasht, who resigned from the party leadership after the heavy defeat.
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