[11] The Christian Democrats used their veto, for example, to preserve sanctions in Germany's unemployment benefit reform (Bürgergeld)[12] and to prevent the federal voting age from being lowered to 16.

Due to the sharp policy disagreement over the economic crisis, Scholz announced the dismissal of FDP leader Christian Lindner as Federal Minister of Finance on 6 November 2024, triggering the collapse of the coalition, and making a snap election likely to be held earlier in 2025.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Scholz government passed a gas rationing law, under the leadership of economy minister Robert Habeck (Greens).

[21] The Traffic Light coalition also agreed on a major €200-billion energy relief package in October 2022, to come into effect starting in January 2023 and running through mid-2024.

The FCO was granted the ability to take action if there was a significant disruption in market competition, irrespective of a specific breach in antitrust law.

[24] Also the requirement that the FCO identify the size of the benefit obtained by a company for violating antitrust law before being able to fine the firm's excess profits was removed.

[31] However, in October 2022, the federal government and the states agreed to implement a nationwide 49 Euro per month public transport ticket, which will apply to all local and regional transit across the country and eliminate the previous maze of tariff zones starting in 2023.

[32] In February 2022, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced a €1-billion special fund to pay tax-free bonuses to eldercare and hospital staff who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To fund the estimated costs of €6.6B per year, the payroll tax for long-term care was increased from 1.7% to 2.4% in a graduated scale based upon the number of children an employee has.

[35] In June 2022, the SPD, Greens, FDP, and Die Linke voted to repeal Paragraph Section 219a of the Criminal Code, which outlawed the so-called "advertisement" of abortion services (a legal term).

[36] In June 2023, new amendments strengthening hate crime legislation in the Criminal Code regarding sexual orientation and gender-specific crimes were introduced by Justice Minister Marco Buschmann and ratified by the Bundestag: In 2024, the government introduced gender self-identification, allowing individuals to change their legal name and gender at a registry office without the need for medical evidence or legal approval.

The law also provides for faster processing of applications, faster and easier recognition of foreign degrees and work experience, introduces a new job seeker visa, lowers the minimum salary for EU Blue Card (from an annual pre-tax salary of €58,400 to €43,800), makes it easier to change industries, introduces a new family reunification visa, and allows refugees/asylum seekers who entered before March 2023 to enter vocational training if qualified.

[45] At the formation of the coalition government, plans existed to (further) restrict German arms sales,[46] under Christine Lambrecht as defence minister.

The Traffic Light coalition joined with the opposition CDU/CSU to pass a special €100B package to finance a re-arming of the Bundeswehr, marking a radical break with the foreign policy of the past 30 years.

The funds were to be used to purchase new fighter jets (including the F-35), armed drones, boats, submarines, combat vehicles, and personal equipment.

In the midst of the debate over whether or not to supply it to Ukraine, the Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) broadcast what was supposed to be a confidential web conversation between four senior Bundeswehr personnel about it.

As the invasion entered its third year amid evidence of rape by the aggressors who had discarded the Geneva Conventions and calls from senior European politicians to shift to a war-time economy,[50] some Scholz coalition members wanted to move gently.

The law also directs more support and attention to so called "language-daycare centers" ("Sprachkita"), which have a specialized focus on accelerated language acquisition and literacy from an early age.

[52][53] In August 2022, a large expansion of the BAföG student loan and grant system was undertaken, with greater eligibility based upon income and age, as well as direct payments increasing substantially.

The law implements an apprenticeship guarantee, expands and simplifies government funding for continuing education/training, introduces new funding (called "qualification money") for workers who are threatened with redundancy due to structural change in their industry, mandates that trainees receive higher pay (equal to 60% of the equivalent full-time salary, or 67% if they have a child), and introduces a new vocational orientation for young people can have a test-period to try out the apprenticeship before actually deciding and starting.

[59] Chancellor Scholz was summoned by a panel investigating the Cum Ex affair, for his role in the city of Hamburg's decision not to prosecute a bank that had illicitly gained tax funds.