German Farmers Blockade Berlin With Tractors

Over 560 tractors, lorries, automobiles and trailers were parked in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin this morning, as German farmers began protesting the coalition government’s plan to reduce diesel subsidies and tax breaks.

Highways, roads and even train tracks have been blocked off by tractors, causing major traffic jams and commuter problems nationwide.

Spending plan: The coalition government, led by Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, was forced to create a new spending plan after a court ruling in November scrapped its 2024 budget.

After a month of negotiations, a new spending budget was agreed to that saved money by cutting subsidies and ending tax breaks in the agricultural sector. These subsidies and tax breaks had saved farmers about €900 million (us$980 million) per year. Farmers are worried that the new budget plan will drive them out of business.

Protests: After backlash from farmers, the government agreed to slowly reduce subsidies year-by-year and end them in 2026. This was not enough for farmers, however.

The German Farmers’ Association insisted on going on with plans to carry out a “week of action,” starting on January 8, and vowed to cause traffic disruptions and blockade the nation.

Not just farmers: The protests have been supported by others who are fed up with the coalition’s policies. Germany’s haulage companies, who themselves are protesting an increase in lorry tolls, have backed the farmers.

The protests have even been encouraged by the conservative opposition Christian Democratic Union and its sister party, the Christian Social Union. They’ve also been supported by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, whose coleader, Alice Weidel, said they have shown that Chancellor Scholz is “no longer taken seriously.”

Speaking to [the protesters], they say this is actually about more than just the politics. It is about this feeling about the government here in Berlin—which is actually a coalition, a three-way coalition government, the first of its kind in modern Germany—is simply not in touch with the people out there in the country: that they are not listening, that things take too long, that they are too busy arguing with each other, and that the disconnect between the ordinary Germans and the government is growing wider by the day.
—Matthew Moore, Deutsche Welle political correspondent

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has warned that weak leadership in Germany could easily aggravate its people and cause them to seek a strong new leader. He has even said that this future leader could “perhaps take advantage of a weak coalition.”

Learn more: Read A Strong German Leader Is Imminent.