Germany: German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has abandoned a plan to scrap Germany's unification day holiday, bowing to pressure a day after the controversial proposal was unveiled by his finance minister.
The abrupt turnaround yesterday was a blow to Finance Minister Hans Eichel and Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement, who had both strongly backed the change aimed at cutting the budget deficit.
It also reopened speculation about splits in the government camp, which had been enjoying more favourable opinion poll ratings in recent months as protests against its tough welfare reforms had faded.
The head of the ruling Social Democrat party, Mr Franz Muentefering, said in a statement that the government had not been able to gather enough parliamentary support for the move, which had been criticised by the SPD's Green coalition partners.
Mr Eichel had proposed celebrating unification on the first Sunday in October each year rather than on October 3rd, the date West and East Germany merged in 1990, as part of a package of measures to bring the budget deficit under European Union caps next year.
The move was intended to give Germany one extra working day a year, lifting gross domestic product by an estimated 0.1 percentage point and bringing an extra two billion euro to the country's strained public finances.
But it was fiercely attacked by the German media, which accused the government of being unpatriotic and betraying one of the proudest days in German history.
The proposal underlined two of Germany's biggest problems: the need for economic reform and the lingering split between east and west. - (Reuters)