Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Germany on Saturday to call for a strong welfare state and voice their opposition to planned government spending cuts.
Trade unions said a total of 175,000 took part in the protests.
Speaking in the western city of Essen, German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) leader Yasmin Fahimi criticized plans by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government coalition in Berlin to seek reforms to working hours and pensions, and warned against cuts to social security benefits.
Under the slogan “Hard-earned! Your work. Your health. Your pension,” people marched through 15 major cities. The DGB sees this as a “clear signal.” At stake are secure jobs, good working conditions and the protection of workers’ rights, it said.
The mass rallies are taking place against a backdrop where, in the car industry for example, many workers fear for their jobs and the already embattled coalition government is locked in a fierce struggle over the next steps in reform.
The DGB had already announced the protests back in July.
Following recent regional parliament elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin – which proved disastrous for his party – Merz stated in mid-September: “The reforms must go ahead.”
Pensions have been the focus of attention for weeks, whilst at the weekend a dispute over care provision flared up within the coalition.
In Nuremberg alone, the police counted between 20,000 and 25,000 people. They put the figure at 12,000 participants in Essen and 15,000 in Frankfurt. There were around 13,000 people in Hanover, 16,000 in Stuttgart, 4,500 in Freiburg and 5,500 in Berlin.
Rallies attended by thousands of people also took place in Hamburg, Kiel, Rostock, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Erfurt and Saarbrücken. In the afternoon, the DGB put the total number at around 175,000 people.
Speaking in Essen, Fahimi warned: “We will not simply allow what we have built up over many years in terms of social standards to be taken away from us.”
At the same time, she called for a collaborative approach and referred to the federal government’s billions earmarked for infrastructure, saying rapid investment is crucial for economic renewal.
Fahimi once again strongly criticized calls for longer working hours and a watering down of the eight-hour working day. Regarding the controversial pension reform plans, the DGB chairwoman reaffirmed her opposition to ending early retirement without penalty: “This pension entitlement after 45 years of contributions must not be scrapped.”
Frank Werneke, leader of the trade union verdi, accused the ruling coalition of an “attack” on workers’ rights and the welfare state. The “class struggle from above” must finally come to an end, he said in Frankfurt. Speaking on German public broadcaster ARD, Werneke described the turnout as “very, very impressive.”
Christiane Benner, leader of the trade union IG Metall, warned in Nuremberg against scaling back social security in times of restructuring and job cuts, for example in the automotive sector: “Economic change can only succeed with confidence in the future and with solidarity.”
Ahead of the event, Fahimi had criticized the coalition’s “fundamental approach” as misguided in an interview. “Too little focus on growth and industrial policy, too many cuts to social services,” said the DGB leader. The DGB wanted to “take the anger to the streets,” she said.
Germany’s employers accused the DGB of a “ritual refusal to reform.”
“The trade unions say ‘no’ to almost every change,” Steffen Kampeter, chief executive of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), told dpa. “They are dreaming of the world of yesterday.”
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