Schroeder pushes through economic programme

German MPs today approved speeding up a €14bn tax cut by a year and trimming jobless benefits in the battle to revive Europe’s largest economy, giving Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a boost as he seeks unpopular changes in the welfare state.

Schroeder, who left a European Union summit a day early for the debate in parliament’s lower house, said the result was evidence his squabbling centre-left coalition “stands together when it comes to modernising Germany.”