Germany must build fiscal reserves to be prepared for next crisis - Scholz

Fighting the coronavirus pandemic is the biggest challenge for Germany's new government and Berlin must create fiscal reserves now to be prepared for the next crisis, Chancellor Olaf Scholz from the centre-left Social Democrats said on Thursday.

Speaking at a ceremony to hand over the finance ministry to Christian Lindner, the fiscally more conservative leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), Scholz said the role of the finance minister within the three-way coalition was "very special" as he would have do deal with all aspects of the government's policies.