The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has used his inaugural address to Parliament to promise to defeat the disease and tackle a minority of hate-filled extremists trying to overturn the government's coronaviruses measures.
In a speech in which he said there was a lot to do and no time to lose Scholz acknowledged the enormous challenges Germany faced in tackling the climate emergency, as well as the fears that a transition to climate neutrality might have on their lives.
He promised a fair distribution of the costs and said everyone would benefit from the safety and security of switching to renewable energy. He said a large majority of the population would have to support the government's promise to bring forward the withdrawal from fossil fuels by the end of seven years of German prosperity in order to be able to work. He said private investment supported by government subsidies would be at the heart of encouraging climate neutrality innovations.
Scholz's three-party coalition government of his Social Democrats, the Greens and the FDP took office a week ago, and paid tribute to his predecessor, Angela Merkel. He thanked her for the smooth transition of power from her government to hers, due to her calm manner and praised her for her modesty and lack of affectation. He said the civility of the transition had been admired worldwide and that the country needed to return to normal and stressed the joint effort needed to defeat the virus.
So far, just under 70% of Germans have been double-jabbed, while 26% have received a booster dose.
He spent the first 10 minutes of his speech condemning truth denial, absurd conspiracy theories, primed-for violence extremists and primed-for violence extremists that had contributed to Germany's low vaccine rate, in a tone sharper than that used by Merkel during the Pandemic. Scholz said he lacked understanding as to why so many adults in Germany had access to two jabs and those most vulnerable having access to a booster jab, so many had yet to take up the offer.
If they had, we would have the epidemic under control by now, he said. We could experience a meaningful Christmas with our old freedoms. He attacked protesters who tried to derail the government's measures to curb Covid 19 just as the attention was on Wednesday was on the emergence of reports of a plot by coronaviruses deniers to murder the leader of the state of Saxony, which led to police raids on Monday. There have been recent torch-lit parades outside the home of Saxony's health minister as well as a stream of death threats sent to mayors and other public figures across Germany.
Scholz stated that he would not allow a minority of extremists to try to impose their will on our entire society, stressing that our democracy is ready to defend itself and knows how to do it. Scholz said he would not allow a minority of extremists to do so, laying out his transport plans including an increase in the number of trains, bringing back disused railway stations and encouraging the use of electric cars.
More affordable housing is on his agenda, including an increase in new builds and introducing a cap on rent increases.
He said that Germany would be a nation of immigration and that people would be able to become German citizens and to be able to vote, and that a minimum wage of €12 an hour would be introduced from next year, as well as increasing awareness of the importance of every type of worker.
He said that there was an increase in the effort to tackle organised crime, political extremism, and tax evasion, but he said that the biggest threat to German democracy came from rightwing extremism.
In line with his predecessors, he said that the success of the European project remained the most important national concern of Germany, and that he said that it was vital to act against the highly worrying gathering of troops on the Ukraine-Russian border.