100,000 Protest Plans to Cut State Benefits
About 100,000 people marched in Berlin to protest Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s plans to trim Germany’s generous welfare state, the biggest show of opposition so far to the proposal aimed at reviving Europe’s largest economy.
Answering the call of labor unions and left-wing groups, protesters chanted slogans and carried signs saying “Poverty for all” and “Why take from the rich while we’ve still got the poor?”
Critics complain that the tax burden falls unfairly on the weak, such as the elderly and unemployed. Leftist lawmakers have called for a hike in the inheritance tax, which would hit the wealthy hardest, as an alternative to benefits cuts.
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