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On its front page, Handelsblatt launches an outspoken attack on “The new SPD Agenda.” The daily is up in arms over the radical divergence between the economic policy currently advocated by Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Agenda 2010, established 10 years ago under SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
For the business daily, the 2010 Agenda, which included far reaching reforms of Germany’s labour market and social security system, conducted between 2003 and 2005 by the SPD-Green coalition —
provided the basis for the growth of the German national economy [...] even though it divided not only the Social Democrats but also [German] society.
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However, unlike Gerhard Schröder, the former minister of finance and current Social Democratic candidate for 2013 elections, Peer Steinbrück, has not succeeded in establishing himself “as an economic specialist,” remarks the newspaper, which further points out —
His plans, which consist of raising taxes on the rich and establishing stricter controls for banks [...] have annoyed the business community.
And although he has “seized on the anniversary of the Agenda” in his bid to woo companies, “this scepticism will remain,” concludes Handelsblatt.
