BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his government coalition partners presented a comprehensive reform package Thursday with the goal of getting the country’s sluggish economy back on track. The 34 reform measures include an income tax reform with tax cuts for low- and middle income families, an overhaul of the creaking pension system, tougher rules for employees’ sick leave and a reduction of the country’s stifling bureaucracy. “These reforms all have one goal: We’re setting out into the future,” Merz said Thursday. “We’re strengthening ourselves so that we can live well in these new times.”Merz’s coalition of center-right and center-left parties took office just over a year ago with pledges to reform and turn around Germany’s sluggish economy, Europe’s biggest. It has since become deeply unpopular, in part because of perceptions that it has squabbled but so far achieved little.
Merz is trying to cut his government coalition free from that negative reputation.“From the very beginning, we set an agenda with a single goal in mind: We want to get Germany back on track. It is now clear that this is possible,” the conservative chancellor said.
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