Social Democrat Olaf Scholz has been sworn in as Germany’s new chancellor, ending 16 years of conservative rule under Angela Merkel.

Scholz, 63, who served as vice chancellor and finance minister in Merkel’s outgoing government, got a clear majority on Wednesday of 395 votes from lawmakers in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Bundestag President Baerbel Bas said.

There were six abstentions.

Scholz was formally nominated by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the nearby Bellevue Palace before returning to parliament to take the oath of office in front of lawmakers and become Germany’s ninth chancellor since the end of World War Two.

Scholz swore, among other things, to devote his energies to the welfare of the German people. But he did not ask for God’s help, a phrase that is usually included in the oath of office and was spoken by Merkel.

Back in Bellevue Palace, the ministers of the new cabinet received their appointment certificates from the president.

In the afternoon, Merkel will officially hand over the chancellery to Scholz as the country faces a brutal fourth wave of coronavirus infections and challenges to its democratic order from authoritarian governments.