Mr Scholz struck a markedly different tone to his soon-to-be successor at the headquarters of his party, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), after they finished with their worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election.
He will need to tend to Germany’s struggling economy and infrastructure, become a leading European figure in supporting Ukraine against Russia and build ties with the Donald Trump administration across the Atlantic, as well as fend off the rise of the AfD, a group that the US president has all but endorsed.
Nonetheless, Mr Trump hailed the election result as a “great day” for the country, suggesting that the vote for conservatism showed that “the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration”.
Despite courting controversy after accepting AfD votes last month to push through a motion proposing tougher migration laws, the 69-year-old future chancellor and former corporate lawyer reiterated on Sunday night his promise not to form a coalition with the far-right political party.
But German political analyst Nicolai von Ondarza says there is a strong feeling within the CDU that this is “a government of last chance” to fend off the appeal of the AfD and that they will “need to be more radical in delivering for economic growth and on migration” to do that.
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