German presidents are largely ceremonial, except for one or two procedural points in parliament. So when Stern magazine released an interview with Horst Köhler on Wednesday, featuring broad and critical remarks about Germany's economic outlook and political future, newspapers seemed a little perplexed. Though he has lauded the economic reforms of former chancellor Gerhard Schröder before, this is the first time he's spoken his mind about the new government led by Angela Merkel. 

The coalition, he said, lacks a "considered and well-shaped framework that clarifies how the world has changed and what the (government's) goal is." He warned that Germany was on the verge of losing economic leadership in Europe, but instead of calling for freer markets -- as you might expect from the former head of the International Monetary Fund -- he hinted at the need for social-welfare reforms. He talked about ballooning profits in global corporations, and said workers should have their share. "In a globalized economy, this kind of profit-sharing can work against the widening gap between rich and poor," he said. He added that Germany might benefit from an American-style "minimum income" -- not a minimum wage but a vague tax-credit idea. "In America," he said, a little mysteriously, "anyone who doesn't earn anything gets basic support from the state."

The Financial Times Deutschland pitched into this idea "with apologies." "The minimum income mentioned by Köhler has existed for years in Germany, and it's called Sozialhilfe (welfare)," write the editors. "In the USA, on the other hand, there is really no such thing as a minimum income. In fact, state help for Americans with no paid work these days is very low." What Köhler wants, write the editors, is a German version of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is not a pension but a tax incentive meant to supplement low pay, but still encourage people to find better work.

"An idea like this … is urgently needed in Germany," writes the paper. "The fact that the president can only express it with misleading comparisons tells us that the German debate (over economic reform) still hasn't properly started."

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said Köhler's remarks should be "savored with caution." Sure, he's the president, as well as a prominent economist; but he hasn't said anything new. "Köhler's proposals are not directed at alleviating the causes of high unemployment and of the overly rigid labor market," wrote the paper. "They're meant to (expensively) cure the symptoms." Köhler just wants to continue on the reform path started by former chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

The right-wing daily Die Welt sees politics behind the interview. "Köhler hasn't quite found his role. In his first year as president he was accused of siding with (the conservative) CDU/CSU. This hurt him deeply, and ever since he's wandered from topic to topic." Not that the paper finds anything objectionable in Köhler's individual ideas. But "his colorful bouquet of proposals looks more like a government program than clear leadership from the president."

The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung is equally unimpressed. One writer lays out the Earned Income Tax Credit explanation; but the lead commentator wonders if all the chatter about economic growth in the last few days (not just from Köhler) isn't a distraction from "the most important social problem that will go unattended in the coming year – unemployment." Economic growth alone won't lighten German gloom; the problem -- still -- is lack of jobs. "Köhler is just flirting with a new dimension of the welfare state," opines the paper, "without dealing with larger questions of how to finance it."

The other topic exercising TAZ editors Thursday morning is the uproar over Susanne Osthoff, the German woman kidnapped in the Iraq, then released after a month under mysterious circumstances. She has no inclination to live in Germany, and may even return to Iraq -- an idea that has shocked her critics into even calling for a ban on her traveling there. That, writes the paper, "would take things in a dangerous direction ... With the arguments put forward, the government could ban all German media groups and aid organizations from traveling to Iraq … The German campaign against Osthoff mirrors exactly the thoughts of the kidnappers who are calling for an end to German-Iraqi cooperation."