GERMANY: At least 5,000 riot police battled protesters in Berlin in what is now a traditional May Day riot of stones, tear gas and water cannon. A woman was in a serious condition in hospital after she was hit on the head with a bottle and dozens of police officers suffered less serious injuries. Over 200 people smashed their way into a supermarket and looted the stock in the district of Kreuzberg early on Wednesday morning.
Helicopters circled the city all day yesterday and streets were lined with armed police in riot gear. Some 800 neo-Nazis marched through an eastern Berlin suburb while a similar march in Frankfurt attracted 450. Both marches took place under police protection and cries of "Nazis out" from counter-demonstrators.
May Day violence in Berlin began on Tuesday night with what police called the worst riots for four years in the eastern neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg.
Firemen were pelted with bottles and stones as they tried to extinguish a street fire started by members of a 500-strong group of extreme-left radicals. Across the city in Kreuzberg, a street concert held for a "Police-free May Day" ended with a violent raid on a supermarket.
Police trying to arrest looters came under a hail of stones and flares. Traditional May Day gatherings around the country attracted over half a million participants but were overshadowed by violence elsewhere and the start of national strikes on Monday by thousands of metal workers and electrical engineers.
Leaders of the powerful IG Metall union will meet in Frankfurt today to finalise the details of the strike, called after wage talks collapsed. The union demanded an offer of at least 4 per cent and rejected an employer offer of a 3.3 per cent pay rise. The looming strike was on the minds of the 5,000 people who gathered in central Leipzig.
"We're not looking for trouble, but we're ready to fight" read one banner, sending a clear message to the keynote speaker, the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder.
He urged the crowd to support his reform programme and return his government to power in September's general election.
"Half of the work is done and the rest takes time. For that reason I expect the support of unions for a course of fairness and modernisation," he shouted, ignoring cat-calls and whistles from sceptics in the crowd.
