It was, said Gerhard Schroder, "a good day for Germany and a good day for Germany's image in the world." It was also, he might have added, a very good day for the Social Democratic chancellor. For it was against nearly all expectations that on July 14th his government managed to ram through the Bundesrat, parliament's opposition-controlled second chamber, a bundle of tax reforms that may be Germany's most radical since the second world war. It was a personal triumph for Mr Schroeder, just as it was a black day for the Christian Democrats and their new leader, Angela Merkel.
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