Germany’s new finance minister, the veteran conservative politician Wolfgang Schäuble, moved swiftly Sunday to assert his power and tell his compatriots and the world that the finances of the largest European economy were dire and would take years to mend.
Using the pulpit of the conservative newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Mr. Schäuble warned that there was no chance to balance the budget in the next four years of the new center-right coalition government headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It was “utopia” to believe that the budget could be balanced during this legislative period that lasts four years, he said.
It was a frank and tough assessment, markedly different in tone from Peer Steinbrück, the Social Democrat who served as finance minister in the outgoing grand coalition headed by Mrs. Merkel for the past four years.
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