Report by Amey Haldankar
Delhi, Sep 29: 2021 German election results are out and have resulted in the election of a new Chancellor – Olaf Scholz.
The previous Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was elected in 2005 and served as Chancellor continuously for 16 years. She decided not to participate in this year’s elections.
What is the role of a Chancellor in Germany?
A Chancellor aka Federal Chancellor is the Head of the government. In German, a Chancellor is known as ‘Bundeskanzler’. The Federal Chancellor is the leader of the Executive branch of government and exercises the powers of the President.
The Chancellor also determines who sits in the Federal
Cabinet. S/he can also determine the number of cabinet
ministers and decide their duties. A German Chancellor can serve the nation for a tenure of 4 years.
More about Olaf Scholz
Olaf Scholz is 63 years old. He belongs to SDP or Social Democratic Party. He was serving as the Vice-Chancellor as well as Minister of Finance since 2018. In the latest 2021 German Federal Elections, he has been elected the new Chancellor by winning the elections by a small margin. He has also served as the mayor of Hamburg, Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, and Deputy leader of Social Democratic Party (SDP).
About 2021 German Elections
The 2021 German Federal Elections were conducted this Sunday, 26th September. These elections were conducted for electing the members of 20th Bundestag (parliament).
CDU or Christian Democratic Union, Social Democratic Party (SDP), AfD or Alternative for Deutschland (Germany in German), FDP or Free Democratic Party, Linke or The Left, Grune or Green, and some Independent candidates participated in the elections.
The winning party, SPD, got 25.7% of votes and won 206 seats out of 735. The opposition party of CDU/ CSU got 24.1% of votes and won 196 seats. FDP, AfD, Green, and the Left got 11.5%, 10.3%, 14.8%, and 4.9% of votes respectively.
