Merkel rules out shift to the left (FT)

Merkel rules out shift to the left


Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, crushed calls on Monday from her Christian Democratic Union for a leftward turn in the party’s economic policies as it seeks to counter its flagging popularity.
The comments broke three weeks’ silence by the chancellor after an acrimonious debate between partisans and opponents of pro-market reforms and liberalisation in the party she chairs.
“The biggest lie of all would be to say that (Germany) needs no – or only very limited – changes,” she told her first press conference since returning from holiday last week. “Change is necessary because the world is changing...And my feeling is that we need more rather than less freedom.”
Nine months after her election as head of a “grand coalition” of Christian and Social Democrats, the debate has revived a painful dispute within the CDU about the chancellor’s poor electoral showing last year and her policy decisions since.
CDU traditionalists, who blamed Ms Merkel’s election result on her reform-oriented campaign, now want the party to return to its social roots. The pro-market camp sees the chancellor’s failure to implement her economic ideas as the main factor behind the party’s plunging ratings.
A poll published last week by the Forsa research group showed 31 per cent approval for the CDU; a 14-point fall since the beginning of the year. With favourable opinions of only 37 per cent, Ms Merkel is now as unpopular as US president George W Bush at home.
The chancellor’s comment on Monday alluded to a recent interview by Jürgen Rüttgers in which the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia and one of the CDU’s four deputy chairmen called on the party to shed its “capitalist” image. He said the belief that “tax cuts led to more investment and jobs” was a “lie”.
Since then, several senior CDU politicians have urged the party to revisit the resolutions reached at its 2003 congress in Leipzig.
With its innovative tax and healthcare proposals, the congress led by Ms Merkel marked a cultural turning point from socially conscious conservatism towards economic liberalism.
Karl-Josef Laumann, a prominent CDU traditionalist, called for a “general revision of the Leipzig conclusions” this week, saying: “I believe we would not reach the same resolutions again today because the framework has changed.”
Ms Merkel, however, made clear the CDU’s pro-market turn was irreversible. “Leipzig was a decisive milestone for the CDU,” she said.
The debate will reach its climax on Tuesday , as the party meets in Berlin to discuss a revision of its political platform, the first such revision since 1994.
Among other topics, the three-day congress will tackle that of the economy today.
She suggested a relaxation of job protection laws clinched with the SPD last year – the extension from six to 24 months of the trial period during which employees can be dismissed without compensation – may not happen. “The question there is whether it brings us any further or not. If not, it may be that sticking with the status quo is the best option.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006