By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Confident of victory in a Sept. 18 general election, Germany’s conservative opposition and their junior coalition partners on Thursday presented a joint draft of their government programme that glossed over their differences.
Conservative leader Angela Merkel, who is far ahead of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in opinion polls, said her Christian Democrats and Free Democrat (FDP) allies were in the starting blocks and eager to take power quickly.
“We’re ready, willing and able to quickly introduce the changes Germany needs,” Merkel told a news conference, flanked by the leaders of her two coalition partners, Edmund Stoiber of the Christian Social Union and the FDP’s Guido Westerwelle.
“The dithering we’ve had the last seven years will be over,” said Merkel, 51, who would become the country’s first woman leader. “We’re going to be able to hit the ground running to resolve the country’s problems without delay.”
The three parties had earlier put forth detailed party programmes before Thursday’s vague joint effort.
Polls give Merkel’s conservatives a 12-13 point lead over Schroeder and his Social Democrats, blamed for overseeing a rise in unemployment to post-war highs and introducing painful welfare reforms that have yet to boost Europe’s largest economy.
Merkel was confident a coalition deal could be agreed fast, and she used the three-way gathering in the midst of the parties’ campaigns to underscore her point.
“Coalition talks will be quick and efficient,” said Merkel, who presented a vaguely worded six-page programme that focused on areas where the parties agree — such as labour market reform and eliminating bureaucracy — but skirted divisive issues like tax, security and Turkey’s membership in the European Union.
Merkel, Stoiber and Westerwelle evaded questions about their differences on taxes. The CDU/CSU want to raise the value-added tax by two points to 18 percent — which the FDP has vehemently opposed — to cut supplemental wage costs.
If the conservatives and FDP win, negotiations on forming a coalition among the three parties could take weeks — due to tensions between the arch-conservative CSU and liberal FDP.
“The sum of the points we agree on is much greater than those that separate us,” said Merkel, who last month belittled the FDP’s staunch opposition to a higher VAT by saying they must have trouble with mathematics.
Westerwelle, who argues supplemental wage costs can be cut by eliminating bureaucracy, was also no longer in the same feisty mood he showed earlier in the campaign when he said it would take hard work to knock “reason” into the conservatives.
“Naturally there are some different positions between our parties,”said Westerwelle, who ha warned that higher VAT will hurt the economy, weaken consumer demand and send workers into the underground economy.
“But no one should make any mistake about it — once we get a joint mandate to govern, the sum of the things that unite us will be much larger,” said Westerwelle.
The draft of the proposed government programme calls for a reduction in job protection rules and making it easier for companies to break free from nationwide labour agreements to negotiate directly with their workers.Thursday, 01 September 2005 15:44
Gracias al chivato 😉
Que luego no diga nadie que en “Desde el exilio” no estamos a la última.
