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After Olaf Scholz was elected chancellor in 2021, the SPD became the leading party of the federal government, which the SPD formed with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party, after the 2021 federal election.
The Leader of the Social Democratic Party (Vorsitzender der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands) is the most senior political figure within the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Since December 2019, the office has been held jointly by Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans.
PortraitPortraitName (born–died)Term Of Office(took Office)17Lars Klingbeil (born 1978)11 December 2021Incumbent17Saskia Esken (born 1961)21 December 2021Incumbent16Saskia Esken (born 1961)6 December 201921 December 202116Norbert Walter-Borjans (born 1952)6 December 201911 December 2021Olaf Scholz ( German: [ˈoːlaf ˈʃɔlts] ⓘ; born 14 June 1958) is a German politician who has been the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor in the fourth Merkel cabinet and as Federal Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2021.
- Overview
- Early life and education
- Political career and path to the chancellorship
- Scholz as chancellor of Germany
Olaf Scholz (born June 14, 1958, Osnabrück, West Germany [now in Germany]) German politician who became chancellor of Germany in 2021. A longtime member of Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), Scholz served as finance minister and vice chancellor in the “grand coalition” government of Angela Merkel (2018–21) before succeeding her as...
Scholz was born in Osnabrück in northwestern West Germany, and his parents worked in the textile industry. He was still a child when his family moved to Hamburg, West Germany’s commercial capital, and that city would figure prominently in his personal and political life. In 1975, while still a high-school student, he joined the Social Democratic Party. From 1978 to 1984 he studied law at the University of Hamburg, and throughout this time he was active in the SPD’s youth organization. Identifying himself as a Marxist, he became a prominent member of the party’s radical wing, and he was especially critical of the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe.
Scholz earned a law degree in 1985 and established his own firm in Hamburg, specializing in labour law. The swift and unexpected collapse of the communist regime in East Germany in 1989 paved the way for the reunification of Germany, and the German labour market was radically reshaped almost overnight. Sholz had often represented workers who were engaged in disputes with employers, but after reunification he also negotiated with the Treuhandanstalt, a government-owned trust that oversaw the privatization of East German industry. During this period Scholz began to move toward the political centre. When he made his debut in electoral politics in 1998, he was regarded as a moderate within the SPD. That same year he married Britta Ernst, a Hamburg-area politician who was also active in the SPD.
In 1998 Scholz entered the Bundestag, representing the constituency of Hamburg-Altona, after a general election that saw the SPD capitalize on a faltering economy and general voter weariness to sweep aside the 16-year government of Christian Democratic Union chancellor Helmut Kohl. The SPD was able to form a coalition with the Greens, and Gerhard Schröder was named chancellor. Scholz became something of a protégé of Schröder, and this relationship allowed Scholz to ascend through the SPD ranks relatively quickly. In 2001 Scholz paused his term in the Bundestag to serve a brief stint as interior senator in the Hamburg government.
Scholz returned to the Bundestag in 2002 and was made general secretary of the SPD, a post that he filled until 2004. In this role Scholz was frequently tasked with defending Schröder’s economic reforms to the media, and his dry, almost mechanical interview style earned him the nickname “Scholzomat.” Although the robotic cognomen was far from flattering, Scholz himself acknowledged that it was “not an entirely false description” of his manner of speech. Schröder’s changes to Germany’s welfare system were enormously unpopular within the SPD, leading to a schism within the party. After the SPD performed poorly in the 2005 regional elections, Schröder called for an early federal election, and the result was a virtual dead heat between the SPD and CDU. With neither major party receiving a clear mandate and negotiations with minor parties going nowhere, a “grand coalition” was formed consisting of the SPD, the CDU, and the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s Bavarian sister party. Angela Merkel of the CDU became chancellor, and Scholz became first parliamentary secretary for the SPD.
In 2007 Scholz joined Merkel’s cabinet as minister of labour and social affairs, and his policies would prove crucial in insulating Germany from the worst effects of the Great Recession. Of particular note was Scholz’s use of Kurzarbeit(“short-time work”) to control unemployment; instead of resorting to mass layoffs, employers reduced workers’ hours, and the government made up a significant portion of the missing salary. Ironically, the SPD’s successes as junior partner in a “grand coalition” worked against it at the ballot box in 2009, as voters overwhelmingly credited Merkel with the achievements of her government and handed the SPD its worst electoral showing since 1949. The SPD became the opposition, and Scholz became deputy chair of the party.
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In 2011 Scholz left the Bundestag and returned to Hamburg to campaign for the office of first mayor. Hamburg was historically an SPD stronghold, but the government of the city-state had been under CDU control since 2001. Stalled infrastructure projects and persistent budget shortfalls had plagued the CDU administration, and Scholz capitalized on voter dissatisfaction to sweep into office with a commanding majority in the Bürgerschaft (state parliament). Scholz jump-started construction on the moribund Elbphilharmonie concert hall and breathed new life into Hamburg’s HafenCity port district. He expanded the city’s public transit system, shepherded a plan to deepen and widen the Elbe to accommodate larger container ships, abolished university tuition fees, and increased spending on day-care services. Having accomplished all this while improving Hamburg’s finances, Scholz and the SPD easily won reelection in 2015.
On December 8, 2021, Scholz was sworn in as chancellor in a ceremony that was notable for his omission of the words “so help me God” from the oath of office. Scholz was the second German chancellor to modify the oath in such a way; the first was his mentor, Schröder. Scholz was not afforded any sort of honeymoon period, as an array of foreign and domestic issues required his immediate attention. A new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 variant had caused COVID-19 cases in Germany to surge to record levels in late 2021, and Scholz’s government struggled to address hesitancy among the one-fourth of Germans who had opted not to receive a vaccine. On the European Union’s eastern flank, Belarusian Pres. Alexander Lukashenko was retaliating against an EU sanctions regime by engineering a migrant crisis. Thousands of immigrants, primarily from the Middle East, flew into Minsk and were then taken to the Belarusian frontier, where many were helped to cross into Poland or Lithuania by Belarusian border guards.
These issues abruptly faded into the background, as the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War began to unfold along Russia’s border with Ukraine. Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin had initiated a massive buildup of troops and equipment in Russia, Belarus, and Russian-occupied Crimea, and Western intelligence officials interpreted the move as the prelude to an invasion. Putin denied any such intent, and Scholz initially appeared reluctant to jeopardize commercial links with Russia, which was a vital gas supplier. Complicating matters further were Schröder’s extensive ties with Russian business concerns as well as his close personal relationship with Putin. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the United States and many EU countries called for immediate sanctions. Although Scholz had already suspended certification of Nord Stream 2, a controversial Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline, he cautioned against measures such as cutting off Russia from the SWIFT financial payment system. Within days, however, Scholz announced a dramatic pivot in Germany’s foreign policy and defense posture. At a special meeting of the Bundestag, Scholz declared that Russia’s aggression signaled a Zeitenwende (“new era”) in the history of Europe and that this watershed moment required an “unequivocal response” from Germany. Scholz reversed a post-World War II practice of refusing to send lethal weapons to active combat zones and dispatched 1,000 antitank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles to aid the defenders of Ukraine. He also announced the creation of a €100 billion fund to improve and modernize the German military and committed to an ongoing annual investment of 2 percent of Germany’s gross domestic product on defense.
19 de mai. de 2024 · Social Democratic Party, Germany’s oldest political party and one of the country’s two main parties. It advocates the modernization of the economy to meet the demands of globalization, but it also stresses the need to address the social needs of workers and society’s disadvantaged.
6 de dez. de 2021 · The SPD leader will be voted chancellor on Wednesday providing that Germany's Greens approve a coalition deal in a ballot on Monday.
27 de set. de 2021 · BERLIN, Sept 27 (Reuters) - German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz vowed on Monday to strengthen the European Union and keep up the transatlantic partnership in a three-way coalition government...
