By Andreas Rinke and Sarah Marsh
BERLIN – Social Democrat Olaf Scholz announced a deal to form a new governing coalition in Germany on Wednesday that aims to modernize Europe’s largest economy, accelerate the green transition and bring the curtain down on the Angela Merkel era.
The alliance, the first at federal level between the ideologically disparate Greens, the libertarian Free Democrats (FDP) and Scholz’s centre-left SPD, ends 16 years of Merkel-led conservative governments.
