Scholz cabinet

Scholz cabinet
24th Cabinet of the Federal Republic of Germany
Incumbent
Date formed	8 December 2021 (2 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 6 days)
People and organisations
President	Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Chancellor	Olaf Scholz
Vice Chancellor	Robert Habeck
Member parties	Social Democratic Party Alliance 90/The Greens Free Democratic Party
Status in legislature	Traffic light coalition 417 / 736 (57%)
Opposition parties	Christian Democratic Union Christian Social Union Alternative for Germany The Left Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht
Opposition leader	Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) (2021–2022) Friedrich Merz (CDU) (from 2022)
History
Election(s)	2021 federal election
Legislature term(s)	20th Bundestag
Predecessor	Merkel IV

The Scholz cabinet (German: Kabinett Scholz, pronounced [kabiˈnɛt ʃɔlt͡s] ^ⓘ) is the current cabinet of Germany, led by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The cabinet is composed of Scholz's Social Democratic Party, Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democratic Party, an arrangement known as a "traffic light coalition" in Germany after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, green and yellow, matching the colours of a traffic light (Ampel). This traffic light coalition-government is the first of its kind at the federal level in the history of the German federal republic.

Following the 2021 German federal election, the three parties reached a coalition agreement on 24 November 2021.^[1][2] The SPD approved the coalition agreement by 98.8% (598 yes-votes to 7 no-votes and 3 abstentions) at the party's federal convention on 4 December 2021.^[3][4] The FDP approved the coalition agreement by 92.24% (535 yes-votes to 37 no-votes and 8 abstentions) at the party's federal convention on 5 December 2021.^[5] The Greens approved the agreement via a party-wide referendum, the results of which were declared on 6 December (61,174 yes-votes to 8,275 no-votes and 1,701 abstentions).^[6][7]

The opposition Christian Democrats can veto important laws (Zustimmungsgesetze) via their Bundesrat seats. They thus form a de facto fourth power in the coalition. The traffic light coalition has therefore been likened to a "Zimbabwe coalition", according to Zimbabwe's flag (red, green, and yellow, plus black for the Christian Democrats).^[8] The Christian Democrats used their veto, for example, to preserve sanctions in Germany's unemployment benefit reform (Bürgergeld).^[9]

In 2023, a mid-term review of the coalition agreement's implementation found that compared to the preceding grand coalition (Merkel IV), the traffic light government had achieved 38 instead of 53 per cent of its coalition promises, which is proportionally less, but with 174 instead of 154 fulfilled promises, it had actually achieved somewhat more in absolute terms. This applies to the government's major reform projects as well as to smaller government projects.^[10]

Scholz was elected as Chancellor by the Bundestag on 8 December 2021.^[11] His cabinet, as determined by the coalition agreement, was formally appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the same day.