Chancellor demands backing for reform plan

CHANCELLOR Gerhard Schroeder made an apparent threat to resign yesterday, warning party malcontents to get behind reforms aimed at reviving the stalled German economy or see his government paralysed.

His move was aimed at bringing to heel left-wing rebels in his Social Democratic (SPD) party who say his Agenda 2010 package of measures will hurt the weakest members of society.

Twelve SPD deputies have signed a petition opposing the package, which includes cuts to jobless benefits and measures to free up the labour market, and called for an unprecedented ballot of the SPD’s 700,000 members on it.

Speaking before a meeting with SPD leaders in Berlin yesterday, the 59-year-old chancellor, whose centre-left coalition has a majority of just nine seats in parliament, demanded party discipline.

“Anyone who wants to vote for something other than that is in the Agenda 2010 programme has to know they are removing the contents of the government’s work,” he told journalists. “Major changes to the Agenda 2010 programme would remove the basis of my work and force me to take consequences.”

Schroeder will seek to drum up grassroots support for his plans in Bonn at the first of four regional SPD conferences on them. The dissidents have also forced the party’s leadership to convene a special party congress on June 1.

Schroeder last indirectly threatened to quit in December as his party squabbled over tax plans. Then, his threat was made behind closed doors at a party meeting and succeeded in temporarily suppressing feuding among leading Social Democrats. A year earlier, Schroeder managed to quell a rebellion in his ruling coalition by turning a decision on deploying troops in Afghanistan into a parliamentary vote of confidence.

Since narrowly winning re-election seven months ago, Schroeder has seen his popularity tumble as the economy has stagnated and unemployment has surged over 4.6 million.

Still more than 15 points behind the conservative opposition in opinion polls despite a slight boost from Schroeder’s popular opposition to the US-led war in Iraq, the Social Democrats would have little to gain from new elections and Schroeder has no real credible heir apparent seen able to lead the party.