Kohl Stands Firm On Cuts In Benefits

Unimpressed by postwar Germany’s biggest labor protest, Chancellor Helmut Kohl accused opponents of his welfare cuts of endangering the nation’s future.

“We must not be deterred,” Kohl said Sunday. “We have heard enough from the worriers and professional complainers.”

About 350,000 people rallied Saturday in Bonn to protest the government’s plans for cuts in social benefits and tax breaks which critics say favor the wealthy. Union leaders demanded that Kohl back off or face labor strife.

Kohl, responding in a TV interview, said he is “not at all impressed” with the threats of protest and portrayed the cuts as relatively minor.

Major strikes have been rare in postwar Germany, where labor and business have practiced a kind of capitalism by consensus which is seen as a key to the country’s prosperity and social security.

Germans have some of the shortest working hours, longest vacations and highest pensions in the world.

Saturday’s protesters seemed a largely benign bunch. Despite the sharp rhetoric and crowd chants of “Kohl must go,” it was a social outing for many and a chance to load up at food and drink stands.

Kohl’s plan would slash $16.5 billion from federal spending by cutting sick pay, raising the retirement age for women, reducing disability and jobless benefits and making it easier for companies to fire workers.