Summary of the day
Farmers began protesting and blocking roads across Germany to show their opposition to plans to reduce diesel subsidies and tax breaks for agricultural vehicles.
The protests caused disruption and garnered significant attention in the country.
Nevertheless, the German government said that it is not considering further changes to plans to phase out agricultural subsidies.
The vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, warned that the farmers’ protest could be exploited by fringe groups.
Alternative für Deutschland criticised Habeck’s comments.
In some German regions, far-right groups managed to infiltrate, and in some instances take charge of, farmers’ protests.
The central German farmers’ association has repeatedly tried to distance itself from far-right parties who have cheered on its call for protests.
Deutsche Bahn’s operations are expected to be disrupted from Wednesday owing to a planned strike.
The German politician Sahra Wagenknecht, a former member of Die Linke, launched a new political party.
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Sahra Wagenknecht launches new party
The German politician Sahra Wagenknecht, a former member of Die Linke, today launched a new political party.
The new party, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance — Reason and Fairness, is set to mix a leftwing approach to economics with restrictive views on migration.
Wagenknecht said the party is in a tradition of working for “social justice” but that many now associate the left with “gender questions and lifestyle questions, and they no longer feel represented”, the Associated Press reported.
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Key event
More photos from German farmers’ protests today.
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Alternative für Deutschland has criticised the vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, over his warning about the farmers’ protests being hijacked by extreme forces.
8 Min. Kinderbuch-Rhetorik mit #Habeck: In einem Video weist er jede Verantwortung weit von sich - stattdessen warnt er die #Landwirte vor "extremer" Vereinnahmung der #Bauernproteste. Surreal: Diese "Republik sei der beste Staat, den Deutschland je hatte"... #DeshalbAfD #AfD pic.twitter.com/uZV5eTeBIa
— AfD (@AfD) January 8, 2024
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About 680 vehicles and 1,300 demonstrators were at the Brandenburg Gate this afternoon, FAZ reported.
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A protester was hit by a car and seriously injured in Lower Saxony, according to local police.
#Thülsfelde bei #Friesoythe
— Polizeidirektion Oldenburg (@PD_Oldenburg) January 8, 2024
Ein PKW-Fahrer umfuhr soeben eine Blockade auf dem dortigen Geh- und Radweg und erfasste dabei einen Protestteilnehmer , verletzte diesen schwer und flüchtete.
Der Fahrer ist inzwischen durch die Polizei angehalten worden.#AgrarProtest0801OL *ts
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Far-right groups join protests in some regions
In some German regions, far-right groups managed to infiltrate, and in some instances take charge of, farmers’ protests against the government’s subsidy cuts announced at the end of last year.
At midday in Dresden, the state capital of Saxony, figures from the ranks of the Free Saxons, a small rightwing extremist party founded in 2021, spoke at a rally outside the Semperoper opera house, the broadcaster MDR reported.
The Third Way, a neo-Nazi party formed by former members of the rightwing extremist NPD in 2013, made a call on its website for its supporters to join the protesting farmers.
Regional delegates for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland reportedly joined a farmers’ protest in Stuttgart, in south-west Germany.
The central German farmers’ association has repeatedly tried to distance itself from far-right parties who have cheered on its call for protests.
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Habeck warns of extremism amid protests
Germany’s vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, has cautioned about the farmers’ protests being hijacked by extreme forces, DPA reported.
In a video today, Habeck said:
There are calls circulating with fantasies of a coup. Extremist groups are forming, nationalist symbols are being openly displayed.
He added:
It is becoming clear that something has started to slip in recent years, which is limiting legitimate democratic protest and freedom of expression.
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Here are more images from around Germany today.
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No more changes to agricultural subsidies phaseout, German government says
Amid today’s protests, the German government said that it is not considering further changes to plans to phase out agricultural subsidies.
“There are no considerations within the government to change anything,” Reuters reported a government spokesperson as saying.
The spokesperson added:
In the end, a government has to decide and has to lead the way, and that can’t always be to everyone’s satisfaction.
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European Commission approves German state aid for Northvolt
The European Commission today announced that it has approved €902m in state aid from Germany to the Swedish battery producer Northvolt for plans to build a gigafactory in Heide, Schleswig-Holstein.
In a statement, the commission’s executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager said:
The aid will enable Northvolt’s investment in a gigafactory to produce battery cells for electric vehicles in Europe instead of the United States.
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More images from Berlin today.
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Paul, a reader living in Mainz, writes in that he saw a procession of hundreds of tractors and trucks going for at least 30 minutes, bringing one side of the road leading into the city to a standstill.
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Here are images from Munich this morning.
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About 550 people protested near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin this morning, DPA reported.
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Deutsche Bahn has asked a court to stop a planned strike this week, Die Welt reports.
Alternative for Germany has thanked one protester for a sign calling for new elections.
"Deutschland braucht Neuwahlen!": Danke an den unbekannten Protestteilnehmer bei #b0801! #Bauernproteste #DeshalbAfD #AfD pic.twitter.com/8Dw12qGQSk
— AfD (@AfD) January 8, 2024
There are fears that Germany’s strikes will play into the hands of the far right. Here is a picture of Alternative for Germany (AfD) supporters in Bonn today expressing their solidarity with demonstrators.
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Here is a photo from Berlin this morning.
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Who’s striking and why?
Railway staff, lorry drivers and farmers are among those threatening strike action across Germany this week in nationwide protests over grievances ranging from pay and conditions to cuts in agricultural subsidies and higher road tolls.
Long Europe’s powerhouse, Germany is struggling with a potent mix of short-term and deeper structural problems that – along with a divided and seemingly ineffectual government – have prompted economists to talk of the “sick man of Europe”.
Germany’s national audit office has described the wholly state-owned rail network, Deutsche Bahn, as being in permanent crisis, with debts of €30bn and punctuality levels at their lowest in eight years.
Decades of underinvestment are to blame, according to unions. The train drivers’ union (GDL) has called for “unlimited strikes” from 8 January, which could cause major disruption, mainly over its demand for a 35-hour, rather than a 38-hour, week.
Despite a partial government U-turn on Thursday, farmers are going ahead with their protest against plans to reduce diesel subsidies and tax breaks for agricultural vehicles as part of €900m of planned cuts to farming sector support.
The farmers say the planned cuts will threaten their livelihoods and German agriculture’s competitiveness, and have warned that from 8 January they will be “present everywhere in a way that the country has never experienced before”.
Hauliers are up in arms over higher tolls, while some doctors – including, from 9 January, specialists – could decide to close surgeries in support of the medical profession’s demands for more state support for an overloaded system.
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German rail union to strike from Wednesday
Germany’s GDL train drivers’ union has announced a strike starting at 2am on Wednesday. The strike is set to last until the end of the day on Friday.
Deutsche Bahn said the strike would result in massive disruptions and there would be only a very limited train service available, asking the public to refrain from unnecessary journeys during that time.
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Farmers begin blocking roads in Germany
Here are photos from Germany early this morning, as farmers began blocking roads.
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‘The mood is heating up’: Germany fears strikes will play into hands of far right
The symbolism that German farmers chose to express their discontent with the government in the first days of the new year was as unambiguous as it was ominous: by the side of rural roads across the country, there were sightings of makeshift gallows dangling from traffic-light signs, a reference to the colours of the three governing parties.
The chilling sculptures are harbingers of unprecedented cross-sector protests and strikes hitting German roads and railways from Monday, and speak of a dramatic change of mood in a country long feted for its consensus-seeking approach to industrial relations, especially compared with its more traditionally strike-prone neighbour France.
With key elections coming up in eastern German states this year, even some farmers fear the new revolutionary spirit could play straight into the hands of a buoyant far right.
An eight-day countrywide protest by agricultural workers, involving motorway blockades and described by the head of the farmers’ association as “the like of which the country has never experienced before”, will go ahead in spite of the government’s partial U-turn on the cuts to diesel subsidies and farming vehicle tax breaks that had triggered them.
The protests of the self-employed farmers and freight carriers, and the strikes in the state-owned train sector, are not coordinated, focusing on different demands and in some cases related to disputes that precede the current government. But their concurrence has given the far right a perfect opportunity to stoke populist fantasies of a coup d’etat.
On its social media channels, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has painted a picture of ordinary people being “driven into ruin by an irresponsible political leadership like in the middle ages”, and urged citizens to join what it has called a “general strike”.
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