Tractors Block Roads in Germany as Farmers Protest Fuel Tax Hike
10:57 GMT 08.01.2024 (Updated: 12:47 GMT 08.01.2024)
© AFP 2023 / JOHN MACDOUGALL
Subscribe
Amid a budget crisis, the German government announced in December the Cabinet’s plans to abolish subsidies for diesel fuel, cancel tax breaks for farm and forestry vehicles and raise road tolls. Farmers, lorry drivers and railway staff all threatened strike action in response.
German farmers have blocked highways across the country with tractors as they accuse the government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz of declaring “war” on their industry.
Angry agrarians even blockaded Berlin's Brandenburg Gate over the government's plans to slash agricultural subsidies as a cost-saving measure.
Media footage and social media videos showed queues of tractors standing in front of the monument. The convoy reached the iconic site at 5:30 pm, with a candlelight vigil set for 11 p.m.
Protesters decked out their vehicles with banners that read “There is no future without farmers”, and “We are fighting for our existence, we are for German agriculture."
The protest in Berlin is one of hundreds across Germany that are expected to continue through the week.
They follow an announcement by the German government’s press secretary in December that the Cabinet intended to deal with the budget crisis by slashing diesel subsidies and tax breaks for vehicles used in forestry and agriculture.
The highly unpopular measures were unveiled as part of an estimated €900mln-worth of planned cuts to farming sector support.
Farmers on their tractors cause a traffic jam as they protest against the federal government's austerity plans in Ludwigsburg, southern Germany on January 8, 2024.
© AFP 2023 / THOMAS KIENZLE
The governing coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and comprising his Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) agreed to walk back some of the mooted cuts to subsidies on Thursday.
But the German Farmers' Association (DBV) said the concessions offered were not enough and the protests went ahead as planned.
Farmers are seen next to their tractors on a road as they demonstrate against the federal government's austerity plans, in Ludwigsburg, southern Germany on January 8, 2024.
© AFP 2023 / THOMAS KIENZLE
Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the FDP called on farmers to "turn around," and claimed that agriculture was a "highly-subsidized sector."
But farmers insist that the planned cuts pose a threat to their livelihoods and will undermine the competitiveness of German agriculture. DBV Presidnet Joachim Rukwied warned in December that from January 8 the protests will be “present everywhere in a way that the country has never experienced before”.
Opposition leaders from the CDU/CSU, the Euro-sceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Free Voters voiced their support for the farmers' protests. Alternative for Germany went on X (formerly Twitter) to thank a protester who had put up a sign calling for new elections.
Screenshot of X post by Germany's right-wing party Alternative for Germany.
© Photo : AfD/X
Screenshot of X post showing tractors approaching the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, as German farmers protests against a cut in vehicle tax subsidies on Hanuary 8, 2024.
© Photo : Sprinter99800/X
The funding gap for 2024 stems from a constitutional court ruling in November 2023 that government plans by the to transfer unused pandemic-era loans to a climate fund would violate the debt brake rule, a constitutionally enshrined cap on new government borrowing. As a result, 60 billion euros ($65 billion) was wiped from the government's spending plan for 2024.
23 December 2023, 10:48 GMT
That left Chancellor Olaf Scholz facing a dilemma between painful budget cuts or raising taxes.
Under Scholz's leadership, Germany has struggled with major economic and leadership problems.
Germany has been dealt a more hard-hitting blow than other EU members by backfiring sanctions on Russian gas, oil, and coal imports imposed by the West over the Ukraine crisis. A survey of economists by a US-based news website in late 2023 found that Germany, which risks “deindustrialization” amid high energy costs on top of other chronic problems, is unlikely to escape recession until 2024.
