Few of Germany's business leaders welcomed the defeat of Dr Helmut Kohl's centre-right government and many predicted economic doom as soon as the Social Democrats and Greens took power. But when the chancellor-elect, Mr Gerhard Schroder, published his programme for government this week, the howls of outrage from Germany's boardrooms were louder and angrier than anyone predicted.
"The plans for income and corporation tax are worse than anything we feared," moaned Mr Hans Olaf Henkel, president of the Federation of German Industry (BDI).
Much of industry's anxiety is inspired by the presence in government of the Greens, a party that grew out of a coalition of environmentalists and revolutionary socialists.
The Greens have been unable to include many of their policies in the programme for government but Mr Schroder has agreed to introduce "green taxes" on petrol, gas and electricity.
The car manufacturing industry, which accounts for one in seven German jobs, fears that higher petrol prices and the introduction of a speed limit on the Autobahn will damage their business at a time when exports are being hit by turbulence in the world's markets.
The nuclear power industry has nothing to look forward to from the new government apart from complete extinction - the coalition is pledged to end nuclear power within four years. Nuclear energy accounts for more than 30 per cent of Germany's electricity needs and the nuclear lobby argues that closing German plants will simply open the way for imports from foreign nuclear power stations.
Mr Schroder plans to reverse reforms in labour law introduced by Dr Kohl which make it easier for small firms to sack workers and reduce sick pay by 20 per cent.
"We do something, employ people and then, in the end, we are penalised. I'm moving my company to the US in 18 months time," said Andrea Scheloske, a 27 year-old entrepreneur who runs her own marketing company.
The government's critics claim that numerous German firms will follow Ms Scheloske's example and move abroad to low-tax regions with low labour costs and less protection for workers.
The business community's worst fears about the new government appeared to be confirmed this week when Mr Schroder's first choice as Economics Minister, Mr Jost Stollmann, turned down the post.
Mr Stollmann, a self-made millionaire who is not a member of any political party, played a key part in Mr Schroder's campaign to persuade voters that his government would be good for business. But he was unwilling to take over a scaled-down Economics Ministry which is about to lose many of its areas of competence to Mr Oskar Lafontaine's expanded Finance Ministry.
The very mention of Mr Lafontaine is enough to turn many business leaders white with rage. They regard him as the malign power behind Mr Schroder's throne, an old-fashioned leftist with an axe to grind against industry.
"Every one of Lafontaine's railing, ideology-laden utterances endangers thousands of jobs," according to business consultant Mr Hermann Simon.
In fact, Mr Lafontaine is an innovative economic thinker who is no more ideologically driven than many advocates of an unfettered free market. He believes that the best way to improve Germany's economy is to boost domestic demand and he advocates a policy of low interest rates to encourage growth.
Mr Lafontaine will undoubtedly be a powerful figure within the new government but his bogey-man status is not enough to explain the tone of wounded pride in many business leaders' complaints.
Their outrage may owe more to the fact that, after 16 years during which their every word was listened to with awed respect, business representatives have been studiously ignored by the new government since the election.
