Regional elections boost German coalition
The German coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD was given a boost on Sunday to press ahead with reforms after regional elections resulted positively. No controversial reforms on the agenda have been pushed out yet, and the election results should cause these to be initiated in the next 15 months.
“There was a certain nervousness hanging over the coalition,” said Norbert Röttgen, a senior MP from Ms Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and a confidant of the chancellor. “This has now dissipated and we have a 15-month window to complete our entire policy programme,” he told the FT.
Dirk Schumacher, economist at Goldman Sachs, said that now “there is no excuse left at all for [the coalition] not to get started with what is on their list”.
Ms Merkel has privately said the government would “start taking more risks” once this weekend’s ballots were out of the way. On her agenda are health insurance, income and corporate tax reforms, measures to encourage job creation in the low-wage sector, and final parliamentary approval for a comprehensive facelift of the country’s unwieldy federal institutions.”
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Administrator @ March 28, 2006