In the German cities of Berlin and Stuttgart, around 25,000 demonstrators marched through the streets to voice disapproval of the federal government's recently announced austerity package, which consists of cuts primarily in the social-welfare and family-services sectors.
The march was organized by trade unions and left-wing opposition groups under the motto: "This Is Not Social Justice".
Police estimated that up 10,000 marched in the southwestern city of Stuttgart while organizers in Berlin said between 15,000 and 20,000 people took to the streets there.
Protesters carried banners saying "The crisis is called capitalism" and "Employment, human rights, a secure future for everyone".
In the face of widespread criticism of the austerity measures which are supposed to bring Germany's deficit within European Union limits by 2013, Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected charges that the country's poor were being unfairly burdened.
