Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Successor To Announce Names Of Cabinet Ministers Next Week

Olaf Scholz. (Wikimedia Commons/Michael Lucan)

JAKARTA - German election-winning Social Democrat (SPD) politician Olaf Scholz said on Hari that his party would wait for the party congress this weekend to approve a coalition deal with the Greens and Free Democrats before announcing the assignment of cabinet posts.

The centre-left party will sign the deal, in which it gets seven of the 16 ministerial positions including defence, labour, health and home affairs, at a congress on Saturday.

"We will say next week which men and women will implement (the coalition deal) for us and Germany," Scholz, who will take over from conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, told an online party forum.

With Germany hitting a new record high of weekly incident COVID-19 infections day after day, some political leaders are calling for the SPD to already announce who will take over the health ministry from conservative Jens Spahn.

The incoming coalition has faced criticism from some virologists and opposition politicians, for not doing more to curb contagion during this transition period.

To note, the three parties passed a law this month requiring people to provide proof of vaccinations, negative tests, or recovery to go to work and use public transport, among other measures, but chose to let the emergency end.

Disagreements have arisen in recent days between the parties on how to deal with Germany's fourth wave.