GERMANY’S Left Party is calling for demonstrations every Monday against a new energy levy that will cost households hundreds of euros extra every year.

The party’s parliamentary commissioner for the east Soren Pellman said: “We need Monday demonstrations like [those against] Hartz IV,” referring to weekly demos staged against attacks on unemployment benefit imposed by the then Social Democrat-Greens coalition in 2004.

A levy of 2.419 cents per kilowatt hour has been imposed to help energy companies cope with rising wholesale costs caused by the disruption to Russian gas supplies resulting from the invasion of Ukraine and retaliatory sanctions.

It is expected to cost a German family of four an extra €480 (£405) a year on average.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck said: “The levy is a consequence of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s illegal war of aggression on Ukraine.”

But Left Party leader Martin Schirdewan called the levy “a slap in the face” for ordinary people and pointed to the record profits being posted by oil and gas extractors.

He called for “an excess profit tax” so that “those who profit from the war bear a fair share of the burden.”

Mr Pellman said the levy would hit east Germans hardest, as incomes there are much lower. “People should fight back,” he said. 

Mr Schirdewan defended his colleague from accusations that such protests would stir social divisions, benefiting the far right. 

“Those who divide society are the parties represented in the federal government implementing anti-social policies at the expense of the majority. 

“We on the left are striving to organise a hot autumn against the social indifference of the federal government,” he declared.