Kurt Beck, the leader of Germany's Social Democrat Party (SPD), caused a stir several weeks ago by announcing his intention to revoke significant parts of Agenda 2010, a welfare-reform package introduced under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2003. The announcement led to a long dispute between Beck and German Vice Chancellor Franz Müntefering, who feels Beck's proposals endanger much of what the SPD has achieved. Now Müntefering has capitulated, recognizing the persistent unpopularity of Agenda 2010 among Social Democrat voters.

The declared aim of the Agenda 2010 reforms is to trim Germany's generous welfare state and stimulate the economy. One of the most controversial elements of Agenda 2010 is a new unemployment benefits regime known as Hartz IV. Hartz IV shortens the period of time during which full unemployment benefits are paid out. Beck wants to extend this period again, in accordance with a model developed by the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB).

German commentators on Wednesday are divided. Some argue that Müntefering -- who was a cabinet member under Schroeder -- will now grudgingly go along with Beck's plans; others predict he will resign, and that the dismantling of the Schroeder-era reforms will proceed with little expected resistance from the SPD's coalition partner, the Christian Democrats.

A conservative paper, Die Welt, writes:

"(Müntefering's) attempt to prevent the step-by-step retraction of Gerhard Schroeder's Agenda 2010 and his protest against benefits once more being distributed among the people in an unqualified way will go nowhere. One can hardly imagine him remaining vice chancellor if a majority of SPD members choose to support Kurt Beck's anti-Agenda 2010 policy at the party congress ... Müntefering's retreat seems only a question of time."

"The recipients of government payments in Germany, pensioners included ... have long constituted a majority vis-à-vis income tax payers. The moment at which nothing can be done politically against the majority of the recipients of government payments can already be predicted. The Germans are eating themselves. A true welfare-state paradox."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"Kurt Beck demonstrated with a vengeance to his fellow party member that he will not and must not accept any compromises in the dispute on unemployment compensation that he himself began.... By cutting down to size the recalcitrant Müntefering, who rightly fears a dangerous change of direction that will take the SPD away from its original program of reform, Beck has also settled the question of who is in charge in the party, at least for the time being."

"Beck's advance forces the Christian Democrats, who are also divided on this issue, to show their colors. The Christian Democrats ... have long since abandoned the view that the reforms already in place must not be revoked. And so the Agenda 2010 could be dismantled with the support of the Christian Democrats, at the very moment when it has proven to be highly effective in terms of its effects on the labor market."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Without the vice chancellor's stubbornness, Kurt Beck's victory in the dispute over the Agenda 2010 would have been less of a victory, and Kurt Beck's attempt to restore to the SPD the profile of a party that engages with social issues, thereby sidelining the Left Party, would have been less noticed."

"And so Müntefering's much praised tenaciousness could pay off for Beck's SPD -- unless the vice chancellor loses his nerve and his interest, and decides to call it quits. In that case, the SPD would be in turmoil and the coalition government at risk. But there is little reason to expect such a development ... (For Müntefering) that would mean stripping his political life's work of much of its luster and losing his life-long reputation as a role model for loyalty."