In his attempt to win this year’s German election, centre-left leader Martin Schulz has taken aim at one of the country’s sacred cows: the decade-old reforms that helped to make its economy the strongest in the eurozone.

Mr Schulz, who is trying to oust Angela Merkel after her three consecutive election victories, has lifted his Social Democrat party’s spirits and poll ratings since being named as their candidate for chancellor last month. Now he is targeting Agenda 2010, the overhaul of the German labour market and welfare system pushed through by one of his party’s former leaders, Gerhard Schr?der, as chancellor in the 2000s.

Criticising legislation that is credited with making Germany, once the sick man of Europe, into an export powerhouse is a risky strategy. Many experts say it is thanks to Mr Schr?der’s gambit that German unemployment is now at a record low, that it has the highest number of people in work since reunification in 1990 and