he becomes official shortly when sworn in as germany s new leader. let s go to fred pleitgen. what are some of the challenges as he takes the reins from angela merkel? reporter: you re right, the end of a long era in germany, 16 years of angela merkel. olaf scholz stepping into some large footsteps there. there are a lot of big challenges that germany has to overcome. first and foremost, tkeeping th economy on track. and also fighting the pandemic. germany right now in a difficult situation. a lot of new coronavirus infections. quite frankly a lot of deaths as well. we have the highest death toll since february coming out today. but then, of course, you have foreign policy challenges like, for instance, the current situation there with russia and ukraine. i think one of the interesting things that we need to point out is that olaf scholz is definitely a chancellor who is very much in favor of strong transatlantic relations. he is a fan of president biden.