Germany Unveils Expansive to Plan to Spur Its Economy

German Finance Minister Theo Waigel unveiled a wide-ranging plan to cut the federal budget deficit and spur economic growth, ending weeks of speculation about the weapons Bonn will use to fight this country’s current stagnation and chronic unemployment.

The proposed package, which would offer incentives to business but which threatens to reduce cherished social benefits, is certain to be the opening shot in a long, watershed battle over basic assumptions about the role of the state, the sharing of wealth and how thoroughly the individual is to be sheltered from the vagaries of the market.

State benefits once considered untouchable--such as health insurance, generous pensions and stringent safeguards against firing workers--would be affected by the proposed package.

The measures cannot be put in effect until passed by the German Parliament, where the coalition government of Chancellor Helmet Kohl faces strong opposition. Support from organized labor will also be essential if the proposals are to go forward, and so far the unions are vowing to fight the plans every inch of the way.

“We will use all means at our disposal, including, if necessary, strikes,” said Roland Issen, head of the DAG white-collar workers union.