It was a declaration of a new kind of middle-class, left-of-center Government.
The good news, however, is that left-of-center governments in other parts of the world have put such reforms into place and lived to tell the tale.
The left-of-center government has one of the lowest approval ratings of any government in Europe, at around 12 percent.
In elections now scheduled for November, polls predict that the thin majority held by the governing coalition could evaporate, giving way to a left-of-center government.
It did not enhance the idea's credibility that it came from a left-of-center government with sometimes frosty relations with business.
Most countries now have left-of-center governments, and Germany's change in power eliminates the most formidable champion of hard-money policies.
Most European countries, including Germany and Italy, have elected new left-of-center Governments in the last two years.
Unions helped elect left-of-center Governments in Italy, France and Germany.
And he is cheered by the fact that the general election this spring has given Italy its first left-of-center Government, which includes former Communists as ministers.
The Government falls, and is replaced by a much harder left-of-center Government which enacts a number of pump-priming policies to fight unemployment.
