OLAF SCHOLZ

Merkel is stepping down after 16 years in power, as the German parliament elects Scholz as the next leader.

Angela Merkel is credited with raising Germany’s profile and influence and working to hold a fractious European Union together.

Scholz, a member of the socialist SPD party, will lead a three-party coalition with the Greens and the pro-business FDP party.

Olaf Scholz is expected to become Germany’s new chancellor on Wednesday at the head of a three-party coalition government, ending the 16-year era of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Olaf Scholz has become Germany's ninth post-World War II chancellor, opening a new era for the European Union’s most populous nation and largest economy after Angela Merkel’s 16-year tenure.

Social Democratic politician Olaf Scholz will take over from center-right Angela Merkel as chancellor and will lead a coalition of three different parties in government.

A three-party deal to form a new German government under center-left leader Olaf Scholz has cleared its final hurdle.

Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has made what is likely her final appeal before leaving office next week for Germans to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

German Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz's center-left party has given its overwhelming approval to a deal to form a new government with environmentalist and pro-business parties.

Chancellor Angela Merkel describes the far-reaching measures as an act of "national solidarity".

"The situation is our country is serious," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling the measure an "act of national solidarity."

Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Germans to stand up to hatred, at a military ceremony bidding her farewell after 16 years in office.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says people who aren’t vaccinated will soon be excluded from nonessential stores, restaurants and sports and cultural venues.

The chief of the European Union’s executive arm says EU nations should consider making COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory because too many people still refuse to get shots voluntarily.

Germany’s next chancellor says he will back a proposal to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for everybody next year.

Olaf Scholz is set to become post-World War II Germany’s ninth chancellor, crowning a career that has seen him serve in a string of top government posts, after leading his party to an election comeback that appeared hugely unlikely just a few months ago.

A coalition deal has been announced in Germany after almost two months of talks following the country's federal election in September.

The three-way alliance is expected to be unveiled Wednesday and reportedly paves the way for center-left leader Olaf Scholz to replace longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany’s would-be governing parties are vowing to modernize Europe’s biggest economy and step up efforts against climate change.

Germany is inching toward the mark of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Germany’s national disease control center has reported a record-high number of more than 50,000 daily coronavirus cases.

Germany’s Social Democrats, the country's main center-left party, is set to make the manager of its successful election campaign one of its leaders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is satisfied with the timing of her departure after 16 years at the helm of the country and is now looking forward to dedicating time to things she had to neglect during her chancellorship.

The German parliament will not extend the “epidemic situation of national scope” when it expires next month, but will keep in place certain measures to check the spread of the coronavirus.

Angela Merkel took a step closer to political retirement Tuesday after receiving her formal dismissal certificate from the post of chancellor after 16 years in office.

The three parties that hope to form Germany’s new government say they aim to have the country’s next chancellor in place in early December, but acknowledge that they face a complex task.

The once fearsome hawk has resigned as head of Germany’s Bundesbank. It is a signal that another species rules the roost now.

The head of Germany’s central bank has announced that he will step down after a decade at the helm.

Three German parties have announced that they aim to open formal coalition talks, moving a big step closer to a new government that would send outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc into opposition.

In Britain as in the U.S., the upbeat optimist tends to triumph over the gloomy technocrat.

A leader of the Greens say the multiparty talks on forming a new German government have “a long way to go” and will have to bridge significant policy differences.

Germany’s environmentalist Greens say they want to hold negotiations on a new governing coalition under the leadership of outgoing Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats which narrowly won the country’s election.

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc has sought to win over the environmentalist Greens for a possible new governing coalition in Germany.

Brexit was named as one of the key reasons for the shortage of HGV drivers in the U.K., but there are deeper issues.

As negotiations continue, it helps that Germans have experience building coalitions and that the largest parties aren’t extreme.

Numerous election day glitches in the German capital have prompted calls for the result to be scrutinized.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has congratulated Olaf Scholz, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, on his party's election success.

Angela Merkel will leave office in the coming months with her popularity intact, despite her party’s dismal election result.

Germany's political status quo is about to be overhauled.

Pressure is growing for a quick start to talks on Germany’s next government as newly elected lawmakers hold their first meetings and tensions simmer in outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc, which declined to its worst-ever result in the country's election.

Germany’s newly elected lawmakers are holding their first meetings as their parties digest the fallout of the election that reduced outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc to its worst-ever result.

As Europe’s economic powerhouse Germany embarks on the task of piecing together a new ruling coalition after Sunday’s knife-edge election, observers need only look to its neighbors, Belgium and the Netherlands, to see how tricky the process can be.

<em>Cancel culture</em> is a murky term. As Anne Applebaum argues, the mob justice it can sometimes refer to is real, but the phrase is too broad and has been unhelpfully politicized.

CBS news foreign correspondent Chris Liversay reports the race to succeed Angela Merkel and her legacy as Germany's leader for 16 years. Then, Lilla Balint, an assistant professor of German in the Department of German at University of California, Berkeley joins Tanya Rivero on CBSN to discuss how a new government could shake up politics in Germany and across Europe.

Olaf Scholz is poised to be the first new leader of the country in 16 years.

Germany’s center-left candidate rooted his campaign in respect—and won.

It will likely take three parties to form a government. Two smaller parties — an environmentalist, progressive party and a libertarian party — appear to be banding together to call the shots.

Germany’s voters have delivered their verdict.

The party that narrowly beat outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc is pushing for a quick agreement on a coalition government, but Europe’s biggest economy could still be in for weeks of uncertainty after an election that failed to set a clear direction.

Former President Trump returned to the campaign stage in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday on behalf of several Republican candidates running in statewide elections next year. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein joins CBSN's Lana Zak with more on how Mr. Trump is deepening the divide among the state's Republican party.

Projections showed long-time leader Angela Merkel's party heading for its worst-ever result in a national election.

Congressional talks on police reform collapsed last week. But many communities are no longer waiting for federal legislation. Kris Van Cleave has more.

Germany's two largest parties have emerged from Sunday's election in what amounts to a dead heat, according to preliminary results.

German election exit polls indicate that the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union bloc are tied.

After 16 years in office, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stepping down. Germans are headed to the polls today in what could be a potentially historic election.

The center-left Social Democrats have won the biggest share of the vote in Germany’s national election, beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc in a closely fought race.

The center-left Social Democrats have won the biggest share of the vote in Germany’s national election, beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc in a closely fought race.

Millions of Germans are heading to the polls on Sunday in an election that will change the face of Germany, and Europe.

Sunday's federal election will determine who will follow Merkel, who has served as Germany's chancellor for 16 years. The country's next government is expected to be a coalition of three parties.

Germany’s closely fought election on Sunday will set the direction of the European Union’s most populous country after 16 years under Angela Merkel.

About 20 million German voters were expected to turn to their phones or other online devices for app advice on which candidates to pick on Sunday.

CNBC takes a look at the main political figures that could shape the future of Europe's largest economy.

The contenders to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor have sought to mobilize voters as the election campaign neared its close, touting their credentials to lead Europe’s biggest economy into a new era as it grapples with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.

A significant number of German voters have not yet decided who to vote for in Sunday's upcoming election, making the outcome even more unpredictable.

The three candidates hoping to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor, and the four leaders of the other parties currently in parliament, have clashed over a variety of topics during the last televised debate before Sunday's election.

For the first time in Germany, climate change is perhaps the most dominant issue in an election campaign, especially for young voters.

Germany's election campaign has largely focused on the three candidates hoping to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor after four terms in office.

Germany’s Green party has come a long way from the radical fringe group of the 1980s, moving into the mainstream and appealing to a wider swath of voters backing policies for tackling climate change. It has helped shape Germany’s exit from nuclear power and pushed for Europe’s industrial powerhouse to become a world leader in hydrogen technology. It headed into the Sept. 26 election in a strong position to be part of the next coalition government.

German voters elect a new parliament on Sept. 26 in a vote that will determine who succeeds Chancellor Angela Merkel after her 16 years in power.

French President Emmanuel Macron has met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris to discuss international crises and European issues.

Social Democratic Party leader Olaf Scholz, the front-runner in the polls to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is credited for transforming Hamburg when he was the city's mayor.

Germany's election race stepped up a gear on Sunday night during a heated TV debate between the three contenders vying to lead the country after the Sept. 26 vote.

The center-right candidate hoping to succeed Angela Merkel as Germany's chancellor is celebrating his party’s narrow victory in local elections in a northern German state.

Germany is seeing its first three-way contest for the chancellery, with the environmentalist Greens joining the country’s two traditional big parties in fielding a candidate for the top job.

With two weeks left before Germany’s national election, the three candidates for chancellorship are facing off Sunday in the second of three televised election debates.

Climate change is among the top concerns for Germans going into this year’s national election that will determine who replaces Angela Merkel as chancellor.

Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has painted a rosy picture of her government’s record and assailed the possibility of a future left-wing administration.

North Carolina health officials on Tuesday released a report showing 170 ongoing COVID-19 clusters in K-12 schools or child care settings.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed full support for Armin Laschet, the center-right Union bloc’s candidate hoping to succeed her as chancellor in this month’s German election.

The election will mark the end of Angela Merkel's 15-year tenure as German chancellor. And polls point to a number of different outcomes.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she would never govern with support from the Left party.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s struggling would-be heir has hit back at suggestions that a center-left rival is better qualified for the job after a televised debate failed to give him a clear breakthrough.

The three candidates to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany’s election are meeting in a televised debate.

It is the first time in 15 years that the SPD has overtaken the CDU/CSU alliance in the polls.

The clear up has barely begun after extensive flooding in Germany and beyond but already the costs — both human and economic — are staggering.

Heavy rain has fueled new floods in southeastern Germany and Austria, though not on the scale of last week's devastating onslaught.

Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Schuld, a village near Ahrweiler that was devastated by the flooding, later Sunday.

Financial leaders from the Group of 20 largest economies said they have come to an agreement on how to move forward on a "more stable and fairer international tax architecture."

Taxation is under the spotlight this weekend as finance ministers of the 20 most advanced economies in the world are gathered in Venice, Italy.

Germany’s Greens party has come a long way from the radical fringe group of the 1980s, moving into the mainstream and appealing to a wider swath of voters backing policies for tackling climate change. It has helped shape Germany’s exit from nuclear power and pushed for Europe’s industrial powerhouse to become a world leader in hydrogen technology. Now, it heads into the Sept. 26 election in a strong position to be part of the next coalition government, and perhaps even to lead it.

German finance minister Olaf Scholz says a minimum tax deal agreed by the G7 will "change the world".

Germany's finance minister on Wednesday welcomed an agreement requiring large companies in the European Union to reveal how much tax they paid in which country. Among the companies affected will be major international corporations such as Google and Amazon, which have used entities in low-tax countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg to reduce their tax burden elsewhere. “The new rules create greater transparency so that international corporations can't wiggle out of their tax obligations,” he added.

Officers responded to the Extended Stay America hotel in Lenexa on reports of a disturbance in a hotel room.

From left to right, Zhu Min, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury secretary, Olaf Scholz, Germany's finance minister, and Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), attend a panel session on the closing day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, Jan. 24, 2020.

Europe's most powerful economy has suffered from the coronavirus pandemic, having faced different waves of infections and subsequent lockdowns.

Olaf Scholz German finance minister"I'm really confident that we'll get an agreement," he said, just one day after speaking to new U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen via telephone. Yellen backed calls for a new global levy on tech giants during a Senate confirmation hearing last week. If the OECD talks fail again, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, is expected to announce an EU-wide digital tax. And anyone knows that the timetable is very strict, we have to agree in summer," Scholz said Thursday. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has also welcomed the support of President Joe Biden's administration over the proposed global tax.

LONDON — German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he is confident the economy can return to pre-crisis levels by 2022, but that European leaders needed to work together. "So, there is a good development we can see ... but we have to understand that we all depend on each other. The deal was seen as a pivotal moment for the union and the first time it has agreed to mutualize debt. "The European Union has a fiscal capacity to act. And my view is that this is possibly the so-called Hamiltonian moment of the European Union."

BERLIN, GERMANY - April 09: Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz, SPD, makes a press statement before a video conference of the Euro Group on April 09, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Germany is spending much more than countries like the United States, on a relative basis, to mitigate the economic impact from the coronavirus, a data study has shown. In comparison, the fiscal plan in the United States is, so far, less than 15% of its GDP from 2019. The think tank has combined all the fiscal pledges made by 11 countries so far. They include Germany, France, Italy, the U.K., Denmark, the U.S., Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Hungary and Belgium.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz speaks to the media on February 21, 2020 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The G20 summit of the Finance Ministers and the central bank governors takes place in Riyadh under the G20 presidency of Saudi Arabia. RIYADH G-20 leaders in Saudi Arabia are using a summit in Riyadh to find an "urgent solution" to international digital taxation, exposing global divisions over how to tax big technology firms. That is bad for the individual countries, bad for the multinationals, and it just doesn't work," he said, flanked by finance ministers from Saudi Arabia, India, Germany and France. The EU, which doesn't have a tech industry of note, is spearheading a global effort to regulate the major tech firms.

Instead of focusing on changing America's trade flows with China, Washington overreached into sovereign domains Beijing could not accept. They are now seething with anger about the World Trade Organisation's arbitration authorizing American countervailing trade tariffs for the EU's illicit aircraft manufacturing subsidies. The European trade bloc is an outgrowth of a U.S.-encouraged and financed process of Europe's postwar reconciliation in an attempt to keep France and Germany off each other's throats. The U.S. economists, however, added a rider to Washington's blessings, and pointed out structural disadvantages the European customs union would present for American trade of goods and services. Washington, the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have nothing to say about that.