Merkel Shifts Focus to Economy Warning SPD Tax Plans Cost Jobs

Chancellor Angela Merkel turned the campaign focus to her stewardship of Europe’s biggest economy, warning that plans by the opposition Social Democrats to raise taxes would upend Germany’s robust labor market.

Merkel used a rally in the eastern town of Wernigerode yesterday to dismiss the notion that the government must create jobs, instead touting her Christian Democratic Union party’s alliance with business. She redoubled her attacks on SPD chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck’s planned tax increases for the wealthier as “poison” for the economy.