Sat Nov 13, 2010 7:31PM
Protests against the German government's austerity measures on June 17, 2010
Tens of thousands demonstrate in cities across Germany against government policies and social inequalities ahead of the ruling party's national meeting.
A day before Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats party (CDU) meeting, nearly 100,000 Germans marched across the country in Stuttgart, Dortmund, Nuremberg and Erfurt.
"We don't want a republic in which powerful interest groups decide the guidelines of politics with their money, their power and their influence," Berthold Huber, head of Germany's largest trade union IG Metall, told a crowd of protesters in Stuttgart.
The rallies were organized by the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), which is demanding higher wages for workers and a mandatory minimum wage.
Demonstrators also protested at the introduction of the new pension age of 67, AFP reported.
During the annual CDU meeting, held between November 14-16 in Karlsruhe, delegates will most likely re-elect Merkel as the head of the party.
The coalition government currently shares power with the Free Democrats and has passed austerity measures and spending cuts during the country's economic crisis.
Merkel's government is now trailing behind the center-left Social Democrats and Greens in opinion polls, Reuters reported.
Last week, tens of thousands of environmental activists protested at the transport of radioactive waste from France to Germany in conjunction with the government's recent decision to extend the life spans of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants.
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