Rudolf Scharping, former party leader and now defence minister, is accused of ambition and obstinacy.

ECONOMIST: Oskar Lafontaine

Neither he nor his most likely foreign minister, Rudolf Scharping, needs his memory jogged about what happens when Germany tries to dominate or go it alone.

ECONOMIST: Gerhard Schr?der, serious in anticipation

Rudolf Scharping, the defence minister, who is conducting an internal review of his own and has fought hard to prevent the planned cuts, could, the chancellor said, keep any savings, perhaps as much as DM2.6 billion a year, by shrinking the armed forces' bureaucracy.

ECONOMIST: Germany

Top Social Democrats who look bound to nose into his patch include Rudolf Scharping, the incoming defence minister, who fancied himself in the foreign-affairs job, and the acquisitive Oskar Lafontaine at finance, who is carving out a role for himself as the new government's Mr Europe.

ECONOMIST: Joschka Fischer, Germany’s reluctant statesman | The