Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has said he wants to bring forward by one year a ban on the installation of new oil or gas heating systems. This measure, agreed in the coalition treaty, is to apply from 2024. Old heating systems are to be replaced by 2045. The neoliberal FDP deplores the hefty price tag for German property owners.

The Greens and SPD are in line with the European Union in its plans to phase out new cars with combustion engines, in favor of electric cars. But the FDP wants to see an exemption for cars that use synthetic fuels or "e-fuels" which is seen as pandering to German car makers. Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) has thrown a spanner into the works of the EU's Green Deal.

The FDP, which heads the Transport Ministry, is keen to push for the faster construction of highways, while the Greens want transport resources to go into the accelerated expansion and construction of new rail lines. This falls in line with the FDP's refusal to impose speed limits on the highways, which some studies show would help reduce CO2 emissions.

German society is aging. The pension system is ailing, and so are the health and above all the care sector. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants more money for the reform plans, but Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) says that not everything can be solved with money. He has plans to boost retirement funds through investment on the stock market.

One in six children in Germany is overweight. Now, Food and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir from the Green Party wants to ban daytime advertising for junk food. But the candy industry is fighting back, and the FDP is opposed to imposing restrictions.

The SPD has pushed through the minimum wage hike, has pledged to subsidize affordable housing, and now it backs Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) in her bid to bundle child benefits from 2025 and scrap bureaucratic hurdles. Her 'Basic Child Security' package comes with a price tag of €12 billion ($12.8 billion), but FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner is skeptical.

The SPD and Greens want to facilitate skilled immigration and speed up the citizenship process. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) is digging in its heels, he is skeptical about introducing dual citizenship and wants to emphasize the prevention of unregulated migration.

Scholz was the finance minister and vice-chancellor in the previous government and is the ninth chancellor and the fourth Social Democrat to hold the office. The former mayor of Hamburg handed his center-left party the surprise win in 2021, having campaigned on stability and pragmatism. Perceived as cautious and unemotional, he has sought to show leadership following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Media-savvy Christian Lindner has been the leader of the business-oriented, neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) since 2013, inheriting a party that had just lost representation in parliament in the election. As Finance Minister during a time of multiple crises, he has been struggling to limit government spending while protecting the wealthy from tax hikes.

The vice chancellor is a member of the more moderate wing of his environmentalist party. He quickly outshone the chancellor with his open communication style, but then lost support in his attempt to implement a pragmatic wartime energy policy. The philosophy major and former author of children's books was previously Environment and Agriculture Minister in his home state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Germany's top diplomat emphasizes a "values-guided" and "feminist" foreign policy. Some months after Russia's war on Ukraine began, she has become the most popular member of the government. She has ruffled feathers by urging a tougher tone on China. Baerbock is only the second Green politician to take on the post, after Joschka Fischer in the late 1990s.

Possibly the biggest surprise in Scholz's new Cabinet, Faeser was elevated from SPD party leader in Hesse to one of Germany's biggest ministries, her first role at federal level. She has taken a tough line, especially on far-right extremism. She is the first woman to hold the office.

The virologist was a popular choice for Germans who enjoyed his outspoken appearances on TV talk shows, advocating a tough health policy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It has not all been smooth sailing for him since then. Lauterbach has vowed to tackle reforming Germany's overstretched hospital system.

Christian Lindner is said to be the face of the FDP, but his childhood friend Marco Buschmann is said to be the brain. From humble beginnings, he excelled in his legal academic career. First elected to the Bundestag in 2009, his signature issue has been protecting individual freedoms. He is not one of the conservative hawks in his party but is cautious about immigration.

The veteran Green Party politician joined the federal government after over a quarter-century in the German parliament. The first-ever German Cabinet minister with Turkish parents is a party moderate and outspoken critic of Turkish President Erdogan. He co-chaired the Green Party for close to a decade.

The ministry with the longest name has gone to the much-respected Steffi Lemke, among the handful who co-founded the Greens' East German branch in 1989. During her first spell in the Bundestag (1994-2002), she was also one of the few Green Party parliamentarians to initially oppose German participation in the Afghan war.

FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing is the party's second most powerful politician after leader Christian Lindner. He spent five years as Rhineland-Palatinate's Economy Minister in a coalition with the SPD and the Greens. Although the hugely popular €9 ticket in the summer of 2022 was his brainchild, Wissing is known mainly for refusing to implement a speed limit on German motorways.

One of only two East Germans in the new Cabinet, Klara Geywitz heads a new ministry set up at the insistence of the SPD. Housing has become an acute issue in Germany, where urban areas are fast running out of affordable housing. Geywitz's ambitious announcement that 400,000 new units would be constructed each year seems to have proved unrealistic.

Heil held the same post in the previous government. During his first year in the new government, he led the overhaul of the social security scheme, and the increase in Germany's minimum wage to €12 ($13.60) an hour.

Angela Merkel's last environment minister became Scholz's first development minister. The outspoken opponent of nuclear power is a member of several environmental organizations. As the government is failing to phase-out fossil fuels as it scrambled to replace Russian gas imports in 2022, environment and climate policy has come under fire from activists.

Stark-Watzinger was part of the party's negotiating team in coalition negotiations and is a specialist in finance and education policy. She has called for an "educational revolution" in Germany, ushering in a major digitalized overhaul of the current system. Earlier in her live, she lived in the UK for nine years.

An economist by training, Paus has served as a Member of the German Bundestag for the city-state of Berlin since 2009. She has put the fight against human rights violations against children and women at the center of her ministry's work.

Scholz's right-hand man in the Cabinet is Wolfgang Schmidt, who worked with Scholz when he was mayor of Hamburg. Chief of staff with a special ministerial brief that gives the chancellorship extra weight in the Cabinet, Schmidt's role largely involves coordinating the ministerial work of the three parties.

Claudia Roth moved into the spotlight of German cultural policy. Within the Chancellor's office, she is also responsible for DW. Former party leader Roth is one of the most prominent faces of the Greens. Most recently, the former manager of the anarchist band Ton Steine Scherben was Vice President of the Bundestag.