Scholz dims lights on Christmas tree amid energy squeeze

BERLIN: The Christmas tree outside Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s office in Berlin will not be lit as long this year, a government spokesman said Thursday, as Germany seeks to save energy through the winter.

The lights on the tree will only shine for four hours each evening from four o’clock to eight, instead of burning constantly as they did last year, the spokesman told AFP.

The fir, plucked from the forests of nearby Brandenburg, is decorated with 4,920 lowenergy LED lights, which will consume 287 watt-hours.

A children’s choir on Thursday sang the classic carol “O Tannenbaum” (O Christmas Tree) at the foot of the tree in Scholz’s presence.

Last year, the tree was put up while conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel was still in office.

The erstwhile German leader stepped down on Dec 8 to make way for Social Democrat Scholz, and his coalition partners, the Greens and the liberal FDP.

A few hundred metres from the chancellery, the Christmas tree in front of the Brandenburg Gate will also only be lit for six hours a day instead, as opposed to 24.

— AFP photo Scholz (first centre left) and the President of the Umbrella organisation of German forest owners (AGDW) Andreas Bitter (third centre left) stand in front of the new Christmas tree, after it was delivered at the Chancellery, as young chorister (right) sing in Berlin.