Germany's public sector workers yesterday called for mass demonstrations at the weekend against the government's plans for drastic cuts in social spending, in the first signs of an organised backlash against the €80bn ($95.7bn, ￡66.4bn) austerity package an-nounced by Angela Merkel, German chancellor.
Up to 15,000 public sector jobs are at risk in the four-year savings programme, while the largest part of the cuts will fall on welfare payments and benefits for the long-term unemployed.
Opposition leaders stepped up their attacks on what they called the social injustice of the package, while also claiming that it would fall short of the savings necessary to bring government spending into balance by 2016.
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