BERLIN, Aug 14 (AFP) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is accusing Germany's center-right opposition of forming a "popular front" with the heirs of the Communists in former East Germany by joining them to oppose social changes being put in place by his government.
The words popular front refers to left-wing alliances, but Schroeder said the opposition Christian Democratic Union was behaving in the same way to profit from the widespread discontent over the changes.
In an interview to appear Sunday on the public ZDF television channel, Schroeder said the Christian Democats were acting as though they had nothing to do with the changes, whereas in fact they had beefed up the text dealing with labor market, against the advice of the government, during the debate in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament.
Tens of thousands of people hostile to the changes demonstrated in some 30 German cities, most of them in the east, Monday, and further demonstrations were planned against the new social measures, with trade union support.
To the ire of Schroeder's Social Democrat party, the opposition likens the protests to the "Monday demonstrations" against the former Communist rulers of East Germany.
In an attempt to quieten down the opposition, the government on Wednesday announced some concessions concerning the application of new labor laws, without chnaging the substance of the measures scheduled to come into force early next year.
The government insists that the changes are necessary to revive the country's economic competitivity.
Schroeder said he would respect the demonstrations against his government, even though he disagreed with what they were trying to say.
He added that there was no need to take demonstrations by 10,000 or 20,000 people too seriously when eastern Germany had a population of some 16 million.