BERLIN ¨C To celebrate his first year in office, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a playful nod to his ¡°traffic light¡± coalition, a nickname that refers to the constituent parties¡¯ three colors: He passed out chocolates shaped like the ¡°Ampelmann,¡± the iconic figure on German pedestrian crossing signals.
But the flavor he picked for those chocolates was bittersweet.
The choice was symbolic. Scholz¡¯s first 12 months as chancellor have been among the most tumultuous of Germany¡¯s postwar history. It was not what he, or nearly anyone in Europe, had expected.
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