According to the unions, 175,000 people took to the streets in nationwide rallies for a strong welfare state and against cuts. In Essen, DGB leader Yasmin Fahimi criticized, among other things, the coalition's reform plans for working hours and pensions and warned of cuts in social security benefits.
Under the motto “Hard earned! Your work. Your health. Your pension.” People marched in demonstrations through 15 major cities. The German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) sees this as a “clear sign”. It's about safe jobs, good working conditions and the protection of workers' rights.
The mass rallies are taking place against the background that many employees in the auto industry, for example, are fearing for their jobs and the black-red government coalition, which is already under pressure, is struggling vigorously to take the next reform steps. The DGB had already announced the protests in July. After the disastrous elections for his party in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz declared in mid-September: “The reforms must come.” The focus has been on pensions for weeks, and a dispute over care broke out in the coalition at the weekend.
20,000 in Nuremberg alone
The police in Nuremberg alone counted between 20,000 and 25,000 people. She named 12,000 participants for Essen and 15,000 for Frankfurt am Main. There were around 13,000 people in Hanover, 16,000 in Stuttgart, 4,500 in Freiburg and 5,500 in Berlin. There were also rallies with thousands of people in Hamburg, Kiel, Rostock, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Erfurt and Saarbrücken. The DGB put the number in the afternoon at around 175,000 people in total.
Fahimi warned in Essen: “We will not simply allow ourselves to be robbed of the social standards we have built up over many years.” At the same time, she called for joint design and referred to the federal government's billions in infrastructure: rapid investments are central to economic renewal.
Current reform projects in focus
Fahimi once again strongly criticized calls for longer working hours and a relaxation of the eight-hour day. In the controversial pension reform plans, the DGB chairwoman reiterated her opposition to an end to the earlier pension without deductions: "This pension benefit after 45 years of contributions must not be reduced."
Verdi boss Frank Werneke accused the ruling coalition of an “attack” on employee rights and the welfare state. There must finally be an end to the “class struggle from above,” he said in Frankfurt. Werneke called the number of participants “very, very impressive” on ARD.
IG Metall boss Christiane Benner warned in Nuremberg against reducing social security in times of restructuring and job cuts, for example in the automotive industry. “Economic change can only be achieved with trust in the future and solidarity.”
“Unions dream of yesterday”
In an interview beforehand, Fahimi had criticized the coalition's "basic orientation" as wrong: "Too little growth and industrial policy, too many social cuts," said the DGB leader. The DGB wants to “bring anger to the streets”.
Germany's employers accused the DGB of "ritual refusal to reform". “The unions say no to almost every change,” said the general manager of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), Steffen Kampeter, to the German Press Agency. “You dream of the world of yesterday.”
