German tractors clog Berlin as farmer protests reach climax
January 15, 2024
German farmers converged on Berlin on Monday for demonstrations that filled the streets around the city's famous Brandenburg Gate.
The protesters are demanding a full rethink on plans to hike taxes on farming operations.
What happened during the protests?
The protests drew some 10,000 farmers, with some 5,000 tractors and trucks, along with others from across Germany.
Germany's Finance Minister Christian Lindner took to the stage in front of thousands of farmers outside Brandenburg Gate.
"I can't promise you more state aid from the federal budget," Lindner told the crowd. "But we can fight together for you to enjoy more freedom and respect for your work."
Farmers' Union head Joachim Rukwied advised against booing the minister.
"I have respect for every politician who is prepared to come to us," Rukwied was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.
Others were not happy to see Lindner. Some protesters chanted "liar," calling on the government to be ousted.
"For me, the government must resign. They are no longer capable of leading us," Paul Brzezinski, 73, a dairy farmer based south-east of Berlin, told the French news agency AFP.
Why are the farmers protesting?
Monday's rally is the culmination of protests that have lasted for more than a week. Farmers have blocked highway entrances outside cities and blocked main thoroughfares within them.
Central to the dispute is a government plan to phase out tax relief on agricultural diesel, something that has been in place for more than 70 years.
Berlin says it will now gradually phase those subsidies out rather than abolishing them all at once as had been initially planned.
In other concessions, the government has already scrapped a planned abolition of the motor vehicle tax exemption for farmers as well as tax breaks on new vehicles.
The additional levies on the agricultural sector were part of a package of measures intended to fill a yawning gap in the government budget after a top court ruling at the end of last year that scuppered the existing plans of Germany's three-way coalition.
German lorry drivers and freight forwarders are also supporting the demonstrations.
Leaders of Germany's ruling coalition parties have invited protest leaders for talks.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday urged calm ahead of the latest effort to bring Berlin to a standstill, amid fears that the far right is trying to infiltrate the protests.
"We've taken the farmers' arguments to heart and revised our proposals. A good compromise," he added.
rmt, rc/lo (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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