GERMANY: The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, summoned his ministers back from holidays for an emergency meeting last night to discuss changes to unpopular reforms that brought over 40,000 protesters onto the streets on Monday.
The economic and social welfare cuts become law next year, but have already sparked vociferous public opposition. Mr Schröder's intervention last night was seen as a sign of his growing nervousness ahead of three regional elections next month, two of them in eastern Germany.
Voter anger at the reforms and hostility towards the government means that the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) are expected to perform badly at the polls, continuing an unbroken series of regional election disasters in the last two years.
A government spokesman was anxious to dispel talk of a "crisis meeting" and instead termed yesterday evening's meeting "exploratory talks".
Central to the discussion were new dole payments, which will be slashed to the level of social welfare - €345 a month in western states and €331 in the east - with additional allowances for housing and parents.
The reforms have also been criticised over a change to payment dates, now to be made on the first of the month from February, as opposed to the end of the month under the old system. Critics say this will leave the unemployed without money in the post-Christmas period.
The reforms also introduce means-tested dole payments, a controversial move that will force people to sell property, cash in life insurance policies and draw on their savings before qualifying for unemployment benefit.
Last night ministers were expected to agree changes to an unpopular provision that will force dole recipients to cash in special educational endowment insurance for their children.
Mr Schröder is convinced that public opposition is not based on the reforms themselves, but on ignorance about them, something taken advantage of by the conservative opposition and the anti-government Springer newspaper group.
The government will "act more offensively than in the past about false reports", said Mr Béla Anda, the government spokesman yesterday.
The government is preparing a huge information offensive in the coming weeks to inform people about the reforms and help fill in a complex 16-page questionnaire sent to all dole recipients.
Union leaders said yesterday that public anger stemmed from the belief that the reforms "dismantle the welfare state and disimprove the conditions of current unemployment benefit recipients". "The government is deluding itself if it still thinks its image problem has to do with the poor communication of their politics," said Ms Ursula Engelen-Kefer, deputy of the German Union Federation.
Employers' organisations, on the other hand, urged Chancellor Schröder not to water down the reform plans and welfare cuts.
"The country can't afford these benefits any more. Staying the course will add wind to the sails of the economy," said Mr Ludwig-Georg Braun, the president of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, representing 3.4 million companies, in an interview.