Press mauls new government plans - Germany

Trade unions, opposition leaders and the press savaged German Chancellor Angela Merkel's new-look government Sunday over what they called a fiscally reckless and socially unjust plan for the next term.

The conservative Merkel won re-election last month and dumped her partners, the Social Democrats, for the smaller, business-friendly Free Democrats, with whom she presented the coalition's plans Saturday.

Their roadmap for the next four years in power, including €24 billion ($36 billion) in tax breaks, won some praise from business leaders for aiming to lift Europe's biggest economy out of its deepest postwar slump.

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Surprise, surprise. "Trade unions, opposition leaders and the [lefty] press savaged German Chancellor Angela Merkel's new-look government." Who would have thought? Shocking and totally unexpected news. [\sarcasm]

This will be the same unions who call members out on strike asking for 8% to 20% wage increases. That did they just say, "fiscally reckless"??

They can say just about anything they want....but they never sold the public on anything during the build-up to the election. It's time to try some different approaches and build a different way. As for the SPD.....I would suggest trying to find the middle-class worker, and not just the union guy. You might be surprised that the middle class helped to bring the FDP and the CDU into the lead.

@MrNosey absolutely, do you expect any different from these groups.....Got to show that they are representing their constituency if they do not get 100% of their requests.

I wouldn't classify either Welt am Sonntag or Bild am Sonntag as "lefty" myself ...