BERLIN — When Angela Merkel became chancellor 16 years ago, George W. Bush was in the White House and Tony Blair was prime minister of Britain. There was no Twitter and no iPhone. Liberal democracy was in seemingly irreversible expansion, with the Orange Revolution having swept Ukraine. On Wednesday, asContinue Reading
BERLIN — Last December, as he was plotting what most considered to be a hopeless bid to become Germany’s next chancellor, Olaf Scholz interrupted his campaign preparations for a video call with an American philosopher. Mr. Scholz, a Social Democrat, wanted to talk to the philosopher, Prof. Michael J. SandelContinue Reading
BERLIN — For the first time in 16 years, Germany will be run by a man. But although Angela Merkel is handing over the chancellery to a male successor, the incoming cabinet will have more women than ever before. Half, to be exact. Olaf Scholz, the incoming chancellor, kept hisContinue Reading
BERLIN — In a ceremonial military send-off to mark the end of her 16 years as chancellor, Angela Merkel left Germans with a final message on Thursday: Trust one another. Less than a week before Ms. Merkel will officially hand over power to her successor, Olaf Scholz, she received herContinue Reading
She’ll miss it by less than two weeks: Angela Merkel in all likelihood will not be the longest-serving German chancellor since Otto von Bismarck, the nation’s founding leader. When Helmut Kohl finally gave up the keys to the chancellery in 1998, he had spent 5,870 days in the top job;Continue Reading
BERLIN — A German regulator on Tuesday suspended its certification of Nord Stream 2, an undersea pipeline intended to transport natural gas directly to Germany from Russia that has been the source of a long-running dispute between Berlin, Washington and Brussels. The action means that the recently completed pipeline willContinue Reading
Germany recorded 33,949 new coronavirus cases over a 24-hour period on Wednesday, surpassing a record set in mid-December 2020, when the country was in the throes of its second Covid wave. During the same 24 hours last year, 165 people died of the disease. “We’re currently experiencing a pandemic ofContinue Reading
BERLIN — When Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany meets President Biden at the Group of 20 summit in Rome this weekend, she won’t come alone: Tagging along will be her likely successor, Olaf Scholz. The buddy act between an outgoing center-right chancellor and an incoming center-left one is striking evenContinue Reading
BERLIN — For a moment it felt like he was already chancellor. As Olaf Scholz stood on the stage surrounded by euphoric followers chanting his name and celebrating him as if he were the next leader of Germany, he was the clear winner of the night. Mr. Scholz had justContinue Reading
As Germany’s election results came into sharper focus on Monday, no party won decisive majority but the loser was clear: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. After 16 years in power under Ms. Merkel’s leadership, they saw their share of the vote collapse by nearly nine points, garnering only 24.1 percentContinue Reading