BERLIN: Olaf Scholz, the leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the country's new Chancellor-designate, has introduced his cabinet ministers. According to reports, clinical epidemiologist and a famous expert in charge of pandemic response Karl Lauterbach would be appointed Minister of Health as Germany now bears the brunt of the fourth Covid-19 wave.
"We will win the pandemic struggle, and we will be better prepared for future pandemics than we were for this one," Lauterbach said, emphasising that no health-care benefits would be sacrificed. Instead, he believes it should be "made more robust."
In the new coalition government, the SPD, the largest political party after the election in September, will have six ministerial slots, four of which will be occupied by women and two by males. Nancy Faeser, a regional politician from the German state of Hesse, will be the country's first female interior minister. "One of my main concerns will be to combat the greatest threat to our free democratic basic order right now, right-wing extremism," Faeser added.
"Security will be in the hands of strong women in this government," Scholz stated, adding that the Defense Ministry will be taken over by Christine Lambrecht, the current Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection.
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