A convoy of trucks and tractors gathered and drove through Nuremberg recently, as German farmers continued protesting against their governments’ agricultural subsidy cuts.
These protests against the proposed agricultural subsidy cuts commenced on Monday and have persisted throughout Germany.
Harald Gommel, a part-time farmer, expressed dissatisfaction with the German government’s policy.
He continued to call the government’s current politics ‘socialist’, stating that it was not yielding positive results and should not be sustained.
The farmer also emphasized that hardworking individuals face higher taxes, and criticized Germany’s spending on international matters.
“I am very dissatisfied, very dissatisfied with this policy. That’s why I’m here today. So we have to move away from this socialist direction, it’s not going well, it can’t continue like this. The people who work, who are hard-working, are always taxed higher here and otherwise, our money is being thrown all over the world,” according to Harald Gommel, Part-time Farmer.
Another farmer, Alfred Winkler, expressed their dissatisfaction on the subsidies.
“I’m not at all happy with what’s happening in Berlin at the moment. Things are decided over our heads that don’t help at all. I’m not a fan of subsidies, but now where the diesel subsidy and the whole tax thing are being abolished, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The worst thing is actually the bureaucracy that affects us all year round. This is a distortion of competition and is unfair to the farmers,” according to Alfred Winkler, Farmer.
A massive convoy of tractors and trucks was also seen driving on a highway followed by protests in the city.
Addressing a 17-billion-euro or $18.6-B deficit in the 2024 budget, the German coalition government decided to reduce subsidies in the agricultural sector but has backtracked on various issues including the proposed elimination of the vehicle tax exemption, while opting for a gradual three-year phase-out of diesel tax breaks.
But the German Farmers’ Union has said that the concessions don’t go far enough according to media reports.
Similar protests were also held in several other German cities, which caused disruptions like blocking roads and highways.
More demonstrations are expected to be held in the future.
Meanwhile, the German government said that they are taking the concerns of the farmers very seriously.
Christiane Hoffman, Deputy Head of the Federal Government’s Press and Information Office, said that the federal chancellor met with the representative of the Brandenburg Farmers’ Association and had a very constructive conversation regarding the matter.
“On the sidelines of a meeting in Cottbus, the federal chancellor met with the representative of the Brandenburg Farmers’ Association and had a very constructive conversation,” according to Christiane Hoffman, Deputy Head of Germany’s, PIO.
These protests come as Germany, Europe’s largest economy, was reportedly in a technical recession in early 2023, and continued shrinking in the third quarter of the said year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Germany will suffer a worse slide in economic output than had been expected, as its economy was rocked by high inflation and a slump in manufacturing.
