New German Chancellor Olaf Scholz inherits longstanding challenges from Angela Merkel and faces a cluster of short-term crises that could complicate his plans to modernize the German state and its economy
The German government could do little to fix supply chains beyond introducing more flexibility for port and customs authorities, but it had to make sure that its trade with China continues to flow, he said.
Mr. Scholz, historically a proponent of the trans-Atlantic alliance, is expected to adopt his predecessor’s stance toward the U.S., aligning Germany diplomatically with Washington on most big foreign policy issues while maintaining some areas of disagreement dictated by Germany’s trade interests, including the country’s close economic ties to China and, to a lesser extent, Russia.
While navigating the short-term crises, Mr. Scholz will start implementing his government’s program of structural overhauls, Prof. Fuest said, including upgrading the country’s patchy digital infrastructure and modernizing public administration, cutting CO2 emissions without harming growth or triggering social upheaval, and managing a demographic decline that economists say will trigger an acute labor shortage within two years.
Past governments have failed in similar endeavors, warned Gabor Steingart, a publisher and political analyst, noting that Mr. Scholz’s left-leaning government was unwilling to trim Germany’s generous welfare state to make it more sustainable.
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