Merkel defends economic reforms

Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel today defended her coalition’s programme of hefty tax hikes and benefit cuts as the right action for creating jobs, stimulating growth and putting Germany back among Europe’s top three countries.

Presenting her Conservatives’ 143-page coalition agreement with her former rivals, the Social Democrats, Merkel – who will become Germany’s first woman Chancellor – acknowledged that the plan makes demands of Germans, but said it did so in the name of moving the country forward.