In recent months a face has risen
to new prominence on the European political scene-Germany's new federal
minister of finance, Oskar Lafontaine. Only a few months ago the average
man in Europe had probably never heard of him. Now his face is well
known on the continent and in Britain.
The British press has had a veritable
field day, lambasting his radical tax pronouncements. But the coverage
has apparently backfired. As Roger Boyes, The Times correspondent
in Germany, reported: "Britain's demonisation of Oscar Lafontaine has
done him no harm. It has boosted his standing in France, extracted
a declaration of support from Gerhard Schröder, the [German] Chancellor,
drawn attention to the British sense of Euro-exclusion and distracted
the gaze from some of the minister's stranger economic announcements" (December
7, 1998).
Herr Lafontaine's ideas on tax harmonization
have frightened the British the most, simply because overall the average
citizen in the United Kingdom has one of the lowest tax bills in Europe.
Harmonization means one thing to most Britons: a big increase in their
annual taxes. But Lafontaine is interested in far more than just radical
tax reform.
Roger Boyes summed up some of his
recent activities in another Times report: "Within days of taking
over power the finance minister declared war on the Bundesbank, shot
across the bow of the European Central Bank, turned economic orthodoxies
on their head, irritated [the German] cabinet...and boxed Gerhard Schröder
into a corner.
"Within weeks he turned his fixed
gaze on Europe. Plans for tax harmonisation, extended majority voting
[in the EU], tighter political integration...and more, [are] to be
in place by the end of Germany's [EU] presidency next summer" (December
3, 1998).
