Five faces to watch in the new German government

In her fourth term, Angela Merkel will have to manage a potentially fragile coalition.

Horst Seehofer, top left, Heiko Maas, top right, Olaf Scholz, bottom left, , Peter Altmaier, bottom right, and Angela Merkel, centre (AP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is starting her fourth term with a much-changed top team in which only three ministers in the new 16-member Cabinet keep their old jobs. There are new faces in some key positions – the finance, foreign, economy and interior ministries.

CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL, 63

Angela Merkel leaves the voting cabinet when Germany’s parliament Bundestag met to elect her for a fourth term as chancellor AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The conservative has stamped her mark on Germany’s political centre ground with a pragmatic approach and willingness to adopt liberal competitors’ ideas, and has often reassured Germans by convincing them that she is on top of complicated crises.

She led a hard-nosed response to the eurozone debt crisis and allowed in large numbers of migrants in 2015, a move that was divisive both at home and abroad.

In this term, Ms Merkel will have to grapple with a possible Europe-US trade war, find common ground with France and others on shaping the EU’s future, and manage a potentially fragile coalition at home.

FINANCE MINISTER OLAF SCHOLZ, 59

New German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz attending a press conference in Berlin (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The sober and self-confident Mr Scholz, who was Ms Merkel’s labour minister during the 2008 financial crisis and then the mayor of prosperous Hamburg, is on the right of his party and an advocate of balanced budgets.

He stresses his party’s “very clear pro-European position” and the need for consensus with other EU countries on eurozone reform, but his arrival does not necessarily herald any major change of direction.

FOREIGN MINISTER HEIKO MAAS, 51

Designated German foreign minister Heiko Maas (SPD), in the parliament in Berlin (Gregor Fischer/dpa via AP)

Mr Maas is best known for pushing through a controversial law aimed at cracking down on hate speech on social networks.

He has been particularly outspoken in criticising the nationalist, anti-migrant Alternative for Germany, which is now the biggest opposition party.

Outgoing foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel, a fellow Social Democrat who over the past year led Germany’s response to tensions with Nato ally Turkey, said Mr Maas will do an “excellent” job.

ECONOMY MINISTER PETER ALTMAIER, 59

Peter Altmaier arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting at the chancellery in Berlin (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

He takes over the ministry that oversees Germany’s trade relations and is in charge of managing the country’s switch from nuclear and coal to renewable energy.

He has served in a succession of party and government jobs as a loyal aide to Ms Merkel, and has previous experience of managing energy policy from a stint as environment minister.

INTERIOR MINISTER HORST SEEHOFER, 68

New German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer addresses the media in Berlin (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, file)

Mr Seehofer — whose party is traditionally a little further right than Ms Merkel’s — was one of the chancellor’s most prominent critics during the 2015 migrant influx, though the pair have since buried the hatchet.

The outgoing Bavarian governor, who has previously served as federal health and agriculture minister, now takes on the task of trying to keep a lid on migrant arrivals.

He has promised a “master plan” to speed up asylum procedures and increase deportations of rejected applicants.