BERLIN (Reuters), German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz announced Wednesday that he has reached a deal to join forces with the Free Democrats, Greens and form a new coalition government. This will end the Angela Merkel era.

The 177-page agreement was reached after 2 months of negotiations. It states that the parties are looking to increase public investments in digitalisation and green technology, while reducing debt levels starting 2023.

This agreement will create Germany’s first coalition of Social Democrats, Libertarian Free Democrats, and Ecologist Greens. It ends 16 years under Merkel and marks the beginning of a new era of relations with Europe.

Scholz said, “We want more progress.” He spoke at a Berlin news conference flanked with leaders from the FDP/Greens. To keep Germany at the top of its game, we will invest heavily in Germany.

Merkel will have big shoes to step into. Merkel has steered Germany through many crises, and stood up for liberal democracy in the face rising authoritarianism.

Some critics claim she solved more problems than she managed and left her successor with difficult decisions to make on multiple fronts.

After the names of the three parties, the alliance is called a “traffic light coalition” and has the majority in parliament’s lower house. It hopes that the government will be in place by the end of next month once the parties have ratified the coalition agreement.

There are immediate issues, including Germany facing the worst COVID-19 increase yet. Europe is dealing with Brexit aftermath and a crisis at its border with Belarus.

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