Olaf Scholz (C) attends the first gathering of the 21st Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, on March 25, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his cabinet were officially dismissed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday afternoon.

Scholz will remain as caretaker chancellor until a new government takes office.

The negotiation to build a ruling coalition is underway. Germany's conservative bloc, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), took the lead in the country's 2025 federal election, followed by the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The results have paved the way for a CDU/CSU and SPD coalition.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz is expected to head the new government. He has voiced the willingness to put the government in place by Easter.

Also on Tuesday, CDU's Julia Kloeckner was elected as the new president of the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.

Born in 1972, Kloeckner served as a Bundestag member from 2002 to 2011. She held the position of Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection from 2009 to 2011. From 2018 to 2021, she served as minister of food and agriculture and again a member of the Bundestag from 2021.

The election took place during the first gathering of the 21st Bundestag following February's election. The first sitting marks the end of the previous electoral term and the Bundestag adopted its rules of procedure.

The term of the current federal government concludes with the constitution of the new Bundestag. 

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