Berlin - Opposition parties derided German Chancellor Angela Merkel's economic stimulus package Tuesday, charging that the plan was too feeble and a patchwork of compromises driven by coalition horse-trading. Merkel, who heads a fractious grand coalition of three parties, briefed the three small federal opposition parties at her office early Tuesday, hours before she was to explain the rescue package to the media.
While the government has hailed the plan as bold and the biggest emergency spending package since the New Germany rose from the ruins of war 64 years ago, the opposition was not impressed.
"It's a ragbag that is utterly unsuited to averting an economic crisis in Germany," said Guido Westerwelle, head of the Free Democrat Party (FDP).
He dismissed the tax cuts as no better than "pocket money," saying they would return less than 5 euros (6.6 dollars) on average to each German this year.
"The new public debt will be exorbitant," he said with the federal government borrowing more money than any of its predecessors.
Lothar Bisky, leader of the Left Party, rejected the package as "utterly inadequate," saying it did not do enough for those on low pay. He charged the plan was mainly shaped to woo voters in a series of state elections early this year.
This Sunday that round of polls begins in the central state of Hesse.
Greens finance spokeswoman Christine Scheel called the plan "wishy-washy" and charged it was only aimed at saving the government's face. "The tax cuts programme is just a joke," she added.
Merkel aides say the rescue package should avert the worst effects of recession on Europe's biggest economy.
The cornerstones are to be a 50-billion-euro fund to bail out struggling industry with loans and 18 billion euros in cuts in income taxes and state health insurance premiums that will spread the bounty to almost every single working household in Germany.
Families with children are also to receive a one-off grant of 100 euros per child.
An earlier, more modest package at the end of 2008 was derided as puny, prompting the government to start over. Germany is set to hold a general election this September and there are fears that voters could punish the government if the economy goes into a tailspin.
