Berlin, May 6, (dpa/GNA) – Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz has taken his oath of office, after being elected by parliament earlier on Tuesday.
The conservative politician, who in an unprecedented turn of events needed two attempts to be elected to the post by lawmakers, pledged during the Bundestag ceremony that he would “dedicate my strength to the welfare of the German people, to increase its benefit and to avert harm from it.”
Unlike his predecessor Olaf Scholz, Merz, a member of the Christian Democrats, ended the oath with the optional phrase “so help me God.”
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