Scholz’s team: Key players in Germany’s new government

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Olaf Scholz has taken over as Germany’s new chancellor at the head of a three-party coalition government, ending the 16-year era of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. Scholz will lead a 17-member Cabinet with one more minister than Merkel’s team. Green co-leader Robert Habeck will become vice chancellor. He will head an economy and climate ministry. The team of nine men and eight women includes Germany’s first female foreign and interior ministers. The co-leader of the environmentalist Greens will head the newly created Economy and Climate Ministry and become vice chancellor. The leader of the pro-business Free Democrats will hold the government’s purse strings as finance minister.