German farmers block streets with tractors in protest of proposed agricultural tax increase
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Olaf Scholz is the Chancellor of Germany. He previously served as Vice-Chancellor under Angela Merkel and as the First Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018. He was the deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2009 to 2019.
Scholz grew up in Hamburg’s Rahlstedt district. His parents worked in the textile industry. He has two younger brothers, Jens Scholz, an anesthesiologist and CEO of the University Medical Center Schleswig Holstein; and Ingo Scholz, a tech entrepreneur.
Olaf Scholz attended the Bekassinenau elementary school in Oldenfelde but then switched to the Großlohering elementary school in Großlohe. After graduating from high school in 1977, he began studying law at the University of Hamburg in 1978 as part of a one-stage legal training course. He later found employment as a lawyer specialising in labour and employment law. Scholz joined the Social Democratic Party at the age of 17.
Scholz’ family is traditionally Lutheran and he was baptized in the Evangelical Church in Germany; he holds largely secular views and left the Church in adulthood.
Scholz was called to the bar in 1985. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1998 to 2011. He served in the Hamburg Government under First Mayor Ortwin Runde in 2001, before his election as General Secretary of the SPD in 2002, serving alongside the SPD leader and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. After stepping down as General Secretary in 2004, he became his party’s Chief Whip in the Bundestag, later entering the First Merkel Government in 2007 as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.
After the SPD left the Government following the 2009 election, Scholz returned to lead the SPD in Hamburg, and was also elected Deputy Leader of the SPD. He led his party to victory in the 2011 Hamburg state election, and became First Mayor, holding that position until 2018.
After the SPD entered the Fourth Merkel Government in 2018, Scholz was appointed as both Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor of Germany. In 2019, Scholz ran on a joint ticket with former Brandenburg state representative Klara Geywitz for the newly introduced dual leadership of the SPD. Despite winning the most votes in the first round, the pair lost with 45% of the vote in the ensuing run-off to the winners Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken. He subsequently stepped down from his position as Deputy Leader.
In 2020, Scholz was nominated as the SPD’s candidate for Chancellor of Germany at the 2021 federal election. The party won the most seats in the Bundestag and formed a coalition with the Greens and the FDP. On 8 December 2021, Scholz was elected as Chancellor by the Bundestag.
Olaf Scholz is 65 years old (birth date June 14, 1958).
Olaf Scholz was born in Osnabrück, Germany.
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