Covid or Not, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Deserves a Chance
A new government is getting ready to take over. Too bad it’ll do so during the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak yet.
Scholz (center) and coalition partners.
Photographer: Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
Olaf Scholz clinched the deal of his life this week. Less than two months after leading his Social Democrats to a narrow victory at the polls, Germany’s outgoing finance minister got himself the coalition he needs to be sworn in as chancellor, probably within two weeks. The 16-year era of Angela Merkel is over. The Scholz years are about to begin.
For a man who fits nobody’s idea of charisma, this success is a well-deserved vindication. Only two years ago, his career seemed all but dead when Scholz, a technocrat by temperament, lost out to leftist firebrands in a campaign to lead his own party. When the SPD later made him its candidate for chancellor, he seemed to stand no chance. But then his rivals spontaneously self-destructed and things fell into place. And here he is.