German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder faces a struggle this week to win support for plans for economic and welfare reforms that trade unions and left-wingers say are a betrayal of the working class.
Mr Schroeder is hoping to gain the backing of the unions and left-wing Social Democrats (SPD) for his package of reforms, called Agenda 2010, which include measures to cut unemployment benefit and make it easier for small firms to fire workers.
He meets Michael Sommer, head of the trade union umbrella organisation DGB, today to try to heal a deepening rift with the unions, the traditional bedrock of support for the centre-left Social Democrats.
But the trade unions, which set sector-wide wage agreements, giving firms little room to adjust pay and conditions if business deteriorates, were sceptical ahead of the talks.
"The chancellor would be well advised to expand the reform agenda to include a more active economic policy," Mr Sommer said.
Mr Schroeder says Germany's dire economic situation means he has no alternative but to restructure Europe's biggest economy, and the reforms have turned into a test of his leadership.
Germany grew 0.2 per cent last year, its slowest rate in nine years, and the government has cut its 2003 growth forecast to 0.75 per cent from one per cent.
Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement rejected claims that cutting unemployment benefit would lead to the collapse of the social welfare system and said the reforms would encourage out of work people to step up efforts to find a new job.
"Nobody is going to undergo social collapse. We have to get to the point where people actively take part in finding a job," he told a gathering in the western city of Dortmund.
"We've done a lot of encouraging so far, but we haven't done enough yet," he said, adding that the goal was to achieve full employment in 10 years. He said reform would cut dole queues by between 200,000 and 300,000 from next year or 2005.
The reforms must be approved by an SPD party congress in June to stand a chance of becoming law. Schroeder has made veiled threats to quit if the party does not back them.
The row is costing the Social Democrats support among voters. An ARD television poll put their support at 28 per cent, three points less than in April.
Florian Pronold, one of the SPD rebels, said he was confident Mr Schroeder would address their concerns. "The only way to lift the SPD out of this popularity trough is by introducing more social justice and innovation," he told NDR radio.
The politically explosive issue of unemployment will be back onto the agenda tomorrow when the Federal Labour Office publishes April jobless data.
The weekly Welt am Sonntag said unemployment would fall to 4.52 million in April, without adjustments for seasonal factors, from 4.608 million in March, citing Labour Office experts.
While the figure is down from March, it is still the highest unadjusted jobless figure for April since unification in 1990.