Merkel formally handed over the reins to her successor on Wednesday afternoon, in a bittersweet goodbye.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier formally appointed Scholz as Merkel’s successor on Wednesday after the parliament elected him chancellor.

It will be a new beginning for our country. In any case, I will do everything to work towards that,” the 63-year-old said as he took his oath of office in an official handover ceremony in the Berlin parliament.

Scholz was elected chancellor after a secret ballot in which he won 395 out of 707 German lawmakers’ votes. Scholz will lead Germany’s first federal “traffic light” coalition, made up of the SPD, the ecologist Greens, and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), and named for the parties’ colours.

Scholz will head a three-way governing coalition consisting of the social democrat SPD party, the Greens and the liberal FDP.

The SPD-Greens-FDP coalition sealed a pact, titled “Dare for More Progress” last month that pledged “a new beginning for Germany”.

The alliance aims to slash carbon emissions, overhaul decrepit digital infrastructure, modernise citizenship laws, lift the minimum wage and have Germany join a handful of countries worldwide in legalising marijuana.

“I know you are starting work highly motivated,” Merkel told Scholz at her chancellery in Berlin, adding: “take this office and work in the best interest of our country—that is my wish.”

Welcoming Scholz’s election, French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the new chancellor and promised to work with his German counterpart.

We will write the next chapter together. For the French, for the Germans, for the Europeans,” said Macron in a tweet in French and German. He also thanked Merkel for “never forgetting the lessons of history, for doing so much for us, with us, to move Europe forwards”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Scholz and said she looked forward to working with him for a stronger EU.

“Congratulations, dear Olaf Scholz on your election and appointment as federal chancellor. I wish you a good start and look forward to further trusting cooperation for a strong Europe,” she tweeted in her native German.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also reacted to the appointment, calling for “constructive” ties with Scholz.

“We are counting on continuity, on the fact that constructive relations will develop between the president and the new chancellor, that the German side will continue to proceed from the understanding that there is no alternative to dialogue to resolve the most difficult differences,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Merkel, 67, Germany’s first woman chancellor, is retiring from politics after four consecutive terms, the first post-war leader to step aside of her own accord.

Speaking an at event in Germany, Adichie noted that in 2019, it was announced that the Nigerian government had signed a memorandum of understanding with Siemens and it had the full backing of Chancellor Merkel

The celebrated novelist also pointed out that Siemens’ “miraculous works” in various countries were listed at the time and it was said that Nigeria’s power will be grown in stages. According to Adichie, two years after, the electricity issue which is the bane of Nigeria’s problem hasn’t been fixed.

Responding to this, Chancellor Merkel outlined some of the reasons. The German leader stated that part of the issue had to do with funding and they are being careful as they’ve made a mistake of not questioning how a project will be financed in the past.

She also revealed that demand of too much local content by the country where the investment is going to, affects the project. According to her, if such was agreed to, a failure might be recorded in regards to solar panels or gas power plants, and the investor will go back to zero.

Merkel noted that there are no industrial base in the country to demand for 40-50% local content for such a project.

When she asked where the project was supposed to be sited, Chiamanda Adichie answered by saying that the location was not disclosed but it was agreed that the megawatts will be grown in stages.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the summit leaders were nearing an agreement on how to support Brazil and said the agreement would involve both technical and financial mechanisms “so that we can help them in the most effective way possible.”

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country and others will talk with Brazil about reforestation in the Amazon once fires there have been extinguished.

“Of course (this is) Brazilian territory, but we have a question here of the rainforests that is really a global question,” she said. “The lung of our whole Earth is affected, and so we must find common solutions.”

Pope Francis also added his voice to the chorus of concern over the fires in Brazil, which borders his homeland of Argentina, and urged people to pray so that “they are controlled as quickly as possible.”

He told the public in St. Peter’s Square that “we’re all worried” about the vast Amazon fires. He warned that that green “lung of forest is vital for our planet.”

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday sent 44,000 soldiers to help battle the fires that are scattered across his nation’s share of the vast Amazon, an overall region ten times the size of Texas that is seen as a global bulwark against climate change.