Who is Olaf Scholz, Angela Merkel’s possible successor to German Chancellor | After the victory of the Social Democrats in the elections

The Social Democrat Olaf Scholz set to succeed Angela Merkel, as indicated by the results which put the SPD at the head of the elections in Germany, whose political forces are negotiating the formation of the new government.

Scholz is not unknown to the opposition or the outgoing Conservative government. He was Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Finance of Merkel and, although he is recognized as one of the most moderate of the force he represents, he presents himself as the “next chancellor” as soon as the first election results fall.

“A lot of citizens want there to be a change of government” and “they also want the next chancellor to be called Olaf Scholz,” he said of himself in the third person.

Scholz took advantage of his low profile

Merkel’s “successor” has 63 years old, is married to a member of the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and has been able to use his low profile in the campaign after having been, for years, the object of sarcasm for his austere profile and his “automatic” speeches, which earned him the nickname “Scholzomat”.

Born in Osnabruck on June 14, 1958, Scholz joined the SPD at 17. He had long hair at the time and flirted with the more left-wing ideas of the party.

Become a lawyer specialist in labor law and in 1998 he was elected deputy. What general secretary of the SPD (2002-2004), had to explain to the cameras every day the details of the unpopular liberal reforms of the then chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

After a series of electoral defeats, Scholz had to give up his post as secretary general in 2004, before returning in 2007 as Minister of Labor.

Outcast in his own party

with merkel, who backed him in 2017 when he faced calls to resign after violent protests at the G20 summit in Hamburg, I maintained a relationship of trust.

His centrist position led him to be marginalized for a time in his own party. However, he was mayor of Hamburg and he was able to survive the crisis of social democracy throughout Europe.

Indeed, despite its defeat in 2019, the SPD, one of the oldest parties in Europe, chose Scholz as its candidate for September.

He took advantage of the mistakes of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and in 2018 replaced Orthodox Christian Democrat Wolfgang Schaüble as Minister of Finance.

“You don’t give what you don’t have”

“You don’t give what you don’t have”, is his motto that he marked the austerity of their administrations. In 2019 he offered to lead the SPD, but activists chose two almost unknown ones significantly more to the left.

Scholz has managed to regain some ground with the pandemic. did not hesitate break with budgetary orthodoxy And after a decade of accumulated surpluses, Germany has incurred billions of euros in new debt since 2020, to the detriment of its strict constitutional rules. “It’s all expensive, but doing nothing would cost even more,” he said.