by Yannick Pasquet
BERLIN, Aug 23 (AFP) - Thousands of Germans took to the streets Monday in what have become regular weekly demonstrations against government labour market reform plans.
At least 100,000 protesters were expected to rally in 140 towns and cities across Germany, organisers said, continuing protests that are also boosting the party which once ruled former communist East Germany.
In eastern towns such as Gera, Halle, Schwerin and Merseburg as well as Bochum in the west demonstrators began gathering in the early evening.
Organisers say the wave of protest is inspired by the "Monday demonstrations" against communist rulers that occurred regularly in 1989 in the closing phase of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder`s reform of the labour market "is going to lead to mass poverty in Germany", warned Dietmar Pellmann, a candidate for the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) in Leipzig in next month`s regional elections.
Most of Monday`s protests were set for areas in eastern Germany, where unemployment in some areas is well over 20 percent, and where the proposed reforms are likely to hit hardest.
This is the fourth weekly protest organised by German labour unions and activist groups.
The measures, set to come into force in January, and known as "Hartz IV", will reduce benefits for the long-term jobless to the level of social welfare payments, meaning a large cut in income for many families.
The cuts will hit an estimated one million people in the east where the population is only 16 million, and 1.2 million in the more populous, prosperous west of the country with a population of more than 65 million.
"Jobless people are going to be forced into accepting underpaid work and it`s those living in the east where unemployment is very high who are especially targeted by Schroeder`s reforms," said Maria from eastern Germany, who lost her job two years ago.
Campaigners for the PDS, successors to the former East German regime`s SED or communist party, were gathering signatures Monday in Leipzig against the new law, which it said was "the law of poverty. We have to get rid of it."
The party hopes on September 19 to gain in that region between 25-30 percent of the vote, Pellmann said. The party won just over 22 percent in the 1999 regional elections.
The party`s electoral ambitions reflect its resurge in popularity, described by the head of Forsa polling institute Manfred Guellner as a current "renaissance".
According to the Allensbach Institute polling company, the PDS has 7.4 percent support across Germany, up from 6.1 percent in June`s European elections.
And in eastern Germany alone, the party`s support has jumped from 21 to 27 percent since March, trailing behind the chief conservative party.
"People who had not voted for us for a long time are again beginning to vote for the PDS, they are often the unemployed or those receiving welfare benefits," Pellmann said.
Surveys suggest that in the eastern state election in Brandenburg next month, the PDS could become the leading political force.
Schroeder made a number of concessions this month to mollify opponents of his reform plan and protect the poorest, but the government insisted there would be no further fine-tuning after this.
The government says the changes are necessary to revive competitiveness in the eurozone`s biggest economy.