Cybersecdn- Germany is having a lot of trouble with flying. Train drivers across the country went on strike from Wednesday evening to Friday evening, making it even harder to get around in Europe’s biggest economy, which was already having a hard time because of ongoing farmer protests.
A strike by the GDL train drivers’ union has almost stopped all rail travel in Germany. Deutsche Bahn, the country’s main rail company, is only running a limited emergency schedule for passengers.
Also, on Wednesday, the head of the German Farmers’ Association DBV promised to step up the protests. The first ones happened earlier this week when hundreds of tractors and trucks parked in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
Germany’s farmers have been blocking roads and highways with convoys of tractors and marching through major cities in a way that looks more like what’s happening in nearby France. They want the government to drop all plans to cut farmer subsidies.
“It looks more and more like a general strike.” On Thursday, Carsten Nickel, deputy director of research at advisory company Teneo, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe,” “We haven’t had a general strike in Germany since 1906.”
“It’s brand new in Germany.” Together, these actions and the amount of political violence… The minister of the economy almost got into a fight with a really angry group of protesters last weekend. Nickel said, “Those are scenes we haven’t seen in Germany before.”
“This is going to be a very important election year, right? “That doesn’t look good,” he said. “There are three regional state elections and the European Parliament elections.”German Economy Minister Robert Habeck was stopped from getting off a ferry last week as he was returning from a private vacation. This shows that political tensions are high because of the budget problem.
German TV station Deutsche Welle reported on January 5 that up to 300 farmers had stopped the ferry from docking in the north of the country. This was a protest that was criticized by politicians and the DBV agricultural lobby group.
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What May Be Going on In Germany?
Olaf Scholz, Who Leads Germany’s Coalition Government, Wanted to Use Tens of Billions of Euros in Pandemic Funds that Had Not Been Used to Change the Economy and Deal with The Climate Problem. The budget Plans Were Thrown Into Chaos in November, Though, when It Was Decided that Moving Emergency Funds Around Was Against the Constitution.
Since then, the Government Has Changed Some of Its Plans for Agriculture. Last Week, It Said that Tax Breaks for Farm Vehicles Would Still Be in Place and That Fuel Subsidies Would Be Slowly Phased out Instead of Ending All at Once.
The German Famer’s Association Said These Steps Were Not Enough and Said They Would Fight Back with More Protests. “There was This Decision from The Constitutional Court in November.” As a Response, the Government Made several Cuts, Including Reducing Those Farm Subsidies. “That seems to Be What Started These Protests,” Nickel from Teneo Said. “It’s Interesting that The Government Already Backed Down from Some Earlier Plans to Cut Aid to Agriculture in December,” He Said.
In Addition, I Believe that These Farmers Might Also Think, ‘Well, if We Keep Pushing, Maybe the Rest of It Will Also Get Canceled.’ This Is Because the Government Is Politically and Also in Terms of Style and Communication Within Itself Very Split.
A Government Spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, Was Asked at A Regular News Conference on Wednesday if There Were Any New Developments in The Farmers’ Requests for Subsidy Cuts. He said, “I Can’t See Any Buckling There,” Which Is What Google translated as.
