Less than a week ago Paul Kirchhof, a Heidelberg professor, who proposes a 25 per cent flat-rate income tax and state pension cuts, was being fêted as Germany's "next finance minister" by opposition conservatives.
Angela Merkel, the party leader, described Professor Kirchhof as a "visionary". But as the tax proposals fail to find favour with mainstream German voters, he is rapidly being viewed as a political liability.
Yesterday, Ms Merkel and her conservative allies began to distance themselves from Professor Kirchhof. Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian conservative leader and former candidate for chancellor lashed out at his tax proposals and his equally radical ideas for pension reform. "They are absurd," he said. "There will be no pension cuts with us."
Ms Merkel's prospective liberal Free Democrat coalition partners were equally critical. "The conservatives must distance themselves from Professor Kirchhof's ideas," said Guido Westerwelle, the FDP leader. "The campaign is not about the self-realisation of individuals, however clever they might be, it's about jobs...."
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article311911.ece
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