Conservatives have ideas too

摘要

If edmund stoiber becomes their chancellor in September, what will Germans get? A man less nice than me, suggests Gerhard Schroder, the Social Democratic incumbent. A man more competent than him, replies Bavaria's premier. Just look, says Mr Stoiber, at the mess Europe's biggest economy is in, with high unemployment and the EU'S slowest growth. On May 6th Mr Stoiber said what he would do about this, when his Christian Social Union, which exists only in Bavaria, and the Christian Democrats, the centre-right party elsewhere, published a joint 70-page election manifesto. With nearly 4m out of work, the labour market is a priority. At present, Germans earning less than EUD325 ($297) a month pay neither tax nor social-security contributions. Mr Stoiber plans to raise the threshold to EUD400, and to reduce social-security payments on wages below EUD800.