Germany news: Protesters block Rheinmetall arms plant

Most Lufthansa and CityLine departures in Germany were canceled on Friday, according to both the airline and the UFO trade union organizing the cabin crew strike, even though their calculation methods varied. 

UFO's chief negotiator Harry Jaeger told the AFP news agency that "almost all" of the two airlines' flights were cancelled, estimating roughly 90%. He said that members' participation in the strike had been "enormous." 

Lufthansa, meanwhile, said that "more than a third of flights of Lufthansa Airlines" were still running. However, this figure includes other subsidiaries like Austrian Airlines and Eurowings not impacted by Friday's industrial action. 

The airline said it expected to run "virtually a full number of flights" on Saturday, but warned that "some isolated cancellations and delays are possible." 

A Frankfurt airport official said that roughly 580 flights had been cancelled on Thursday, in Munich it was 400. These are Germany and Lufthansa's two busiest airports. 

Lufthansa cabin crew only went on strike for flights from these two key hubs, but CityLine employees downed tools at nine airports. 

It's the fourth strike the airline has faced this year and the second involving UFO members. Lufthansa is also in faltering negotiations with the pilots' trade union Vereinigung Cockpit.

A major combined strike action on February 12 affected around 100,000 passengers. 

Prosecutors on the French border to Germany in the Haut-Rhin region are investigating a 43-year-old father and his partner after finding a young boy locked in a vehicle outside their home. 

The severely malnourished boy was discovered on Monday, naked and surrounded by litter and his own waste, on the floor of a delivery vehicle. Neighbors had alerted police after hearing noises inside the vehicle. 

Prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said the boy was not able to walk and was immediately taken to hospital. 

He said that the father had admitted to locking the boy up in the vehicle since November 2024. He claimed he was trying to protect him from his partner, who wanted to commit the boy to psychiatric care. 

The couple lived with two girls, aged 10 and 12, one each from their respective former relationships.

The vehicle was parked outside a collection of residences, with the man living in one of the apartments.

Prosecutors said that the father monitored the vehicle using a video camera, and said that the footage showed he would visit it twice a day to throw things inside. 

Bergenbach is in the Haut-Rhin region near the border to Germany and Switzerland in the Alsace region, where many households use the Alsatian German dialect as their everyday first language.

Lufthansa and the Verdi trade union have announced a pay deal for airborne personnel, both pilots and cabin crew, for the Lufthansa subsidiary City Airlines. 

The announcement coincides with the latest strike by a rival trade union for cabin crews called UFO, which canceled hundreds of flights at several German aiports, particularly Frankfurt and Munich, on Friday. 

The agreement is set to run for three years until March 2029, both sides said in a joint statement.

Verdi said it had negotiated pay increases of between 20% and 35% for cockpit and cabin personnel. Basic salaries would rise in a total of three phases, and be accompanied by supplementary income increases like bonuses. 

"Employees will receive considerably more pay within the coming years and their working conditions will also improve step by step despite the enormous growth plans," Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky said.

The union also hailed plans for an extra free day each month, two additional days' holiday, and improved holiday planning and part-time work options going forward. 

The new City Airline subsidiary, founded in 2023, is supposed to operate with considerably cheaper ticket prices and also lower personnel costs than the Lufthansa core brand, as should the company's other new venture Discover. 

The changes are part of the plans to phase out the CityLine regional subsidiary, whose employees are striking at nine airports in Germany on Friday. 

Verdi is one of Germany's biggest trade unions, representing workers in a wide array of professions. It is a rival to the UFO cabin crew and Cockpit pilots' trade unions that have staged several strikes amid pay disputes with Lufthansa during the course of the year. 

The Social ​Democrats' Deputy Parliamentary Group Leader Esra Limbacher has responded to Katharine Reiche's criticism of a windfall tax proposal, saying the economy minister was not fit for ​her post.

"It is regrettable ‌that an economics minister sees herself as a representative of the oil companies instead of working with her coalition partner to provide ​relief for the many ⁠small businesses," Limbacher told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

"Germany doesn't need a minister who acts as a lobbyist; it needs an economy minister with vision and the determination to tackle the challenges currently facing many businesses. Neither of these qualities is currently present," she said.

Before being tapped as economy minister, Reiche was chair of the board at Westenenergie AG, one of Germany's largest regional energy service providers, specializing in electricity, gas, water, and broadband networks. It is the main subsidiary of energy giant E.ON.

Amid tensions in Germany's governing coalition over how to address soaring fuel prices brought on by the Iran war, Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on conservative (CDU/CSU) Economy Minister Katherina Reiche to "exercise restraint," the DPA news agency reported on Friday.

"The chancellor is dismayed by the public spat," sources close to Merz told DPA.

In an interview earlier on Friday, conservative Economy Minister Katherina Reiche criticized proposals from Social Democrat (SPD) Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil that included a temporary reduction in energy tax, funded through a windfall tax targeting high profits made by energy companies amid the current oil shortage.

"In recent weeks, our coalition partner has been putting forward proposals that are costly, ineffective and constitutionally questionable," Reiche told broadcaster Welt TV. "This causes confusion and does not help consumers."

Germany has already imposed a rule allowing only one gas price hike per day at filling stations, but this has failed to quell prices that last week touched record levels. 

Talks are set to continue, with leaders from the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and SPD scheduled to meet Sunday in a coalition committee to address the dispute.

A German court has rejected the final bid by the convicted architect of the Cum-Ex tax fraud scheme, Hanno Berger, for a retrial.

The Higher Regional Court of Cologne dismissed his complaint, ruling that the evidence presented gave no reason to expect a lighter sentence or acquittal.

Berger had sought to reopen proceedings, arguing that a key witness had made false statements. He also withdrew a central part of his earlier confession. A lower court had already deemed the request inadmissible.

He was sentenced in 2022 by the Regional Court of Bonn to eight years in prison for serious tax evasion, with a further sentence of eight years and three months later imposed by the Regional Court of Wiesbaden. Both rulings were upheld by the Federal Court of Justice.

The court said the request to reopen the case is now "finally rejected," meaning Berger will remain in prison following his extradition from Switzerland in 2022.

Berger is considered a key figure behind Cum-Ex share deals, which cost the German state at least €10 billion ($11.71 billion). The transactions, widely used by banks between 2006 and 2011, are regarded as the largest tax fraud scheme in German history.

A protest at a Rheinmetall facility in Berlin has led to a police operation after activists blocked an entrance.

Police said seven protesters had glued themselves to the roadway, preventing access, and were later removed by officers.

Authorities said some activists suffered minor hand injuries during the removal and were treated at the scene. Investigations have been opened on suspicion of trespassing, coercion, and resisting law enforcement.

The Berliner Morgenpost newspaper reported the activists chanting in German "Rheinmetall out of Berlin" and "German guns, German funds, murdering people all over the world."

The incident follows a similar protest roughly two weeks earlier, when demonstrators climbed onto the factory roof, displayed banners linked to the Middle East conflict, and poured paint on the building facade. Police used specialized rescue units to bring them down.

Germany's ruling coalition is seeing splits emerge over how to ease the burden of high fuel prices on consumers.

Economy Minister Katherina Reiche from the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) criticized proposals from the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) as costly, ineffective, and constitutionally questionable in an interview with Welt TV.

Reiche said relief measures should be targeted, economically sound, and budget-friendly, stressing that price signals must be preserved. She rejected the idea of an excess profit tax, arguing it raises legal concerns.

Talks are set to continue, with leaders from the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and SPD scheduled to meet Sunday in a coalition committee to address the dispute.

Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil has argued that further relief is necessary to counter inflation. He has proposed a mobility bonus or a temporary reduction in energy taxes, funded by an excess profit tax on energy firms at the European level.

Klingbeil has also backed a flexible price cap on gasoline, diesel, and heating oil, and held talks Friday with business groups and trade unions.

Reiche pointed to ongoing legal challenges linked to earlier excess profit taxes introduced after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and warned that such measures could weaken refinery operations.

Carmaker Porsche has reported a significant drop in vehicle deliveries in the first quarter, with sales in the US and China taking a hit.

The company said it delivered just under 61,000 cars, down 15% year over year, in line with expectations, according to sales chief Matthias Becker.

The decline has been driven by a reduced model lineup, including the end of production for the combustion-engine 718. The comparison is also skewed by the strong launch of the electric Macan last year.

Demand in the US has also been affected by the removal of tax incentives for electric vehicles, with sales there falling 11%.

In China, deliveries dropped sharply by about 20% to roughly 7,500 units, as market conditions remained challenging. 

Sales in Europe also fell by 18%, while Germany saw a modest increase of 4%.

The Volkswagen Group subsidiary is facing a broader downturn, having barely remained profitable operationally in 2025. New CEO Michael Leiters is aiming to turn the business around with cost cuts and a revamped model strategy.

Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil has called an energy price crisis summit with business leaders and unions despite easing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Officials said the talks Friday would focus on the economic impact of the Iran war, particularly high energy costs, and explore targeted relief measures.

Klingbeil has proposed easing the burden on households through measures such as a mobility bonus, potentially funded by a windfall tax on energy companies, and has also backed a flexible fuel price cap.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday no immediate relief should be expected, though the government remains in close dialogue and would act if prices rise sharply and persistently.

Unknown assailants attacked an Israeli restaurant in Munich overnight, smashing several windows and throwing pyrotechnic devices inside, police said on Friday. 

Nobody was hurt in the incident, but the attackers caused damage worth several thousand euros. 

Police and the restaurant's management believe the attack was motivated by antisemitism. The Police State Security Service (or Polizeilicher Staatsschutz), which deals with politically motivated crimes, has taken over the investigation. 

Emergency services received a call at around 12:45 a.m. on Friday, reporting three loud bangs in the Maxvorstadt district.

"According to the current state of investigations, the display windows were forcibly damaged and pyrotechnic devices were thrown into the restaurant," police said. 

The 70-seat restaurant operators told the dpa news agency that "there were no direct threats" in the run-up to the case. They also said they planned to open for business on Friday as usual. 

"We won't be intimidated. We're reopening," said Grigori Dratva, the owner's brother-in-law and an employee at the eatery. 

Germany has logged an uptick in crimes thought to be motivated by antisemitism in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel and amid the various conflicts in the Middle East that have followed, according to the BfV domestic intelligence service.

The Bavarian startup firm Isar Aerospace has aborted another rocket launch after a technical issue.

The company said Thursday that a leak in a pressure vessel had been detected, forcing the launch of its "Spectrum" rocket to be called off.

CEO Daniel Metzler said reaching orbit and proving reliable access to space remains the goal, adding that launch aborts are common in the industry and provide valuable data.

The rocket had been due to lift off from the Andoya Spaceport in Norway. A previous attempt in late March was also halted due to technical problems.

Earlier test efforts have faced setbacks, including a first test flight about a year ago that ended shortly after liftoff.

The parliamentary group of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is preparing to define its priorities for the coming months at a closed-door conference in the eastern city of Cottbus.

Lawmakers said the agenda includes two key policy papers focusing on the economy and energy, as well as pensions and social policy.

The group will also discuss Germany's 2027 federal budget and investments in research, science, and universities.

The meeting's outcomes are set to be presented on Sunday by co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla.

As the second-largest faction in the Bundestag since the last federal election, the anti-immigrant AfD has sought close ties with US President Donald Trump's Republican Party.

However, it has faced difficult questions since Trump’s return to power, with Washington’s shifts on foreign policy and tariffs clashing with German interests.

Cabin crew at Germany's national carrier Lufthansa are on strike in an action that affects hundreds of flights.

Some 20,000 flight attendants staged the walkout as wage negotiations continue to stall.

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Germany's inflation rate has risen to 2.7% in March, the highest level in about two years, driven by surging energy prices.

The Federal Statistical Office of Germany confirmed its preliminary estimate, up from 1.9% in February and close to the 2.9% seen in January 2024.

Energy prices climbed 7.2% year-on-year, marking the first increase since late 2023. Fuel costs jumped around 20%, while heating oil surged 44.4%. Electricity prices fell 4.5% and natural gas dropped 2.9%, easing overall household energy costs slightly.

Food prices rose a modest 0.9%, with chocolate and other candy about 6% more expensive. It wasn’t all bad news, though, with butter and olive oil nearly 18% cheaper than a year earlier.

Net rents rose 1.9%, while services increased 3.2%, driven by higher costs in social services and transport, including price changes to the Deutschland Ticket, the monthly subscription that allows unrestricted travel on local and regional public transport across Germany. 

"The inflation increase observed so far is just the beginning," explained Sebastian Dullien, scientific director of the Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research (IMK) at the Hans Böckler Foundation. "Even if the ceasefire in the Middle East holds, inflation is likely to rise further in April."

He said higher fuel prices in early April and delayed pass-through from wholesale gas and electricity costs would continue to push prices up, alongside indirect increases such as more expensive deliveries.

Dullien added that the inflation outlook depends heavily on stability in the Middle East. A sustained ceasefire and normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz could ease pressure, while renewed escalation could push inflation toward 4%.