At least 100,000 protesters were expected Monday to demonstrate in rallies across Germany against looming cuts in unemployment benefits, continuing a series of weekly protests against government reforms, organisers said.
Rallies were expected in 140 towns and cities mainly in the territory of former communist East Germany, where unemployment in some areas is well over 20 percent and where the proposed reforms are likely to hit hardest.
Organisers including the anti-globalisation group Attac said they expected a larger turnout than the more than 90,000 people who hit the streets of 90 towns and cities last Monday despite concessions by the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Organisers predicted a stronger turnout this Monday in the west than last week. This is the fourth weekly protest organised by German labour unions and self-help groups.
The measures, set to come into force in January, will reduce benefits for the long-time jobless to the level of social welfare payments, meaning a large cut in income for many families.
The cuts will hit an estimated one million people in the east where the population is only 16 million, and 1.2 million in the more populous, prosperous west of the country with a population of more than 65 million.
The measures also require those on the dole to use family savings and life insurance policies to support themselves.
Schroeder made a number of concessions this month to mollify opponents and protect the poorest, but the government insisted there would be no further fine-tuning after this.
Organisers say the wave of protest is inspired by the "Monday demonstrations" against former East Germany's communist rulers that occurred regularly in 1989 in the closing phase of the former communist German Democratic Republic. The two German states reunited in 1990.
The government says the changes are necessary to revive competitiveness in the eurozone's biggest economy, but the cutbacks will hit the east hardest.
With the Social Democrats struggling badly in opinion polls, the demonstrations are likely to have political fallout on an important state election in Brandenburg, eastern Germany next month.
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