GERMANY: Scholz faces difficult balancing acts

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Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), have nominated Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as their chancellor candidate for the next Bundestag elections. The early decision – more than one year ahead of the September 2021 polls – reflects how limited the party’s personnel options were, making Scholz the only reasonable choice. But the structural challenges faced by the SPD over the last two decades will pose a risk also in this coming election. Scholz’s path to the chancellery leads via declining support for the Christian alliance (CDU/CSU) post M