German press starts to doubt Merkel's finance guru
Wed Sep 7, 2005 12:12 PM ET
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By James Mackenzie
BERLIN, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Germany's press has stepped up pressure on opposition leader Angela Merkel's finance guru, questioning his refusal to reveal what cuts would pay for the radical tax reform plans that have made his name.
Former constitutional court judge Paul Kirchhof, who joined Merkel's team as shadow finance minister last month, has electrified the race ahead of a national election on Sept. 18, pledging a drastic overhaul of Germany's complex tax system.
His appointment sparked a big boost in Merkel's ratings, helping her to overcome a series of gaffes that had plagued her campaign.
But doubts about the practicality of proposals for a single low tax rate for all and the abolition of a web of tax breaks and subsidies have led to increased questioning, even from newspapers friendly to Merkel's reform platform.
"It's no surprise that the former constitutional court judge has started to be regarded more critically," business daily Handelsblatt, a strong proponent of economic reform, said in an editorial on Wednesday.
"The more unclear it is what her finance expert wants, the more Merkel's coup will turn into a burden," it said.
The criticism of Kirchhof, hitherto seen as a Merkel's major campaign asset, came as opinion polls showed a centre right coalition between her Christian Democrats (CDU) and the liberal Free Democrats had fallen behind the other three parties for the first time in months.
ONE RATE FOR ALL
Kirchhof wants a flat tax rate of 25 percent for all taxpayers, which he would balance by abolishing the tangled web of tax breaks that have made Germany's tax code among the most complicated in the world.
But he has refused to spell out exactly what would be cut to balance a budget gap estimated at 43 billion euros ($53.8 billion) that critics say would be created by his proposals. Continued ...
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