Status: 15.01.2024, 15:11 PM
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A participant in the protest demonstration holds up signs during the rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate. © Monika Skolimowska/dpa
Once again, convoys of agricultural vehicles are rolling into the heart of the capital: with a large demonstration, the industry is putting pressure on the end of subsidies. There was also a meeting.
Berlin - With a long convoy of tractors, thousands of farmers in Berlin have vented their anger about the traffic light coalition and the end of diesel subsidies. At a protest rally at the Brandenburg Gate on Monday, farmers' president Joachim Rukwied demanded: "Withdraw the tax increase proposals, then we will withdraw." Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) justified the savings plans in a speech accompanied by boos and whistles, but was open to relief in other areas. On the fringes of the rally, the chairmen of the three traffic light parliamentary groups met for talks with the farmers' associations.
Rukwied shouted that the demonstration was sending a signal: "Enough is enough, too much is too much." The industry is willing to talk, but the compromise offered by the government is not fair, but rotten. "We won't accept that." The farmer's president stressed that it had not been possible to push the protests "into the right-wing corner". He warned that a secure supply of domestic food must continue to be guaranteed. This is also the basis for a stable democracy.
According to initial police figures, 8500,6000 people and around 30,000 vehicles came to the rally. The farmers' association did not give an exact number of participants, but assumed around <>,<> demonstrators.
The rally was the culmination of a week of action with which farmers have mobilized nationwide in recent days against the already weakened plans of the traffic light coalition. For savings in the 2024 budget, the agricultural diesel subsidy, which has existed for more than 70 years, is to be abolished. Originally, the aid was supposed to be eliminated immediately. Now it is to expire over three years. The government has completely abandoned an initially planned cancellation of the vehicle tax exemption for agricultural vehicles.
Lindner said at the rally that the protest had already been successful, the government had heard the arguments. "There should not and must not be a special sacrifice of agriculture, but only a fair contribution." He stressed: "If agricultural diesel is phased out, then the burdens on farms must also be phased out step by step." Among other things, the minister addressed bureaucratic requirements, environmental and animal husbandry requirements. Possible tax relief should also be examined if profits fluctuate greatly from year to year.
Lindner called the farmers' protests legitimate and peaceful. When he stepped up to the lectern on stage, he was accompanied by whistles and shouts of protest. Rukwied appealed to the demonstrators and called for respect for the minister who was willing to engage in dialogue. Even during Lindner's speech, there was still "Get out!" -Shouts, horns and whistles.
Since the morning, tractors, trucks and other vehicles had been parked in several rows close behind each other on the Straße des 17. Juni and the boulevard Unter den Linden. Tractors had already rolled through the capital during the night, honking their horns. On vehicles in the morning were slogans such as "Tank empty - out of the mouse", "Without farmers no future" and "Transport made in Germany - how much longer?". Other banners spoke of government failure, injustice, nepotism and warmongering. On display was a model of a gallows with a traffic light. At the Victory Column, demonstrators wore vests with the inscription "We are the people".
Together with the farmers, the transport industry called on the government to change course. "Our industry has had enough," shouted Dirk Engelhardt, spokesman for the board of the Federal Association of Road Haulage, Logistics and Waste Management (BGL), at the rally. He criticized the increased truck toll, which now also includes a CO2 surcharge. It is said that this levy is intended to benefit the transformation, but at the same time there is a lack of suitable charging stations and power grids, among other things, to convert logistics transport in a climate-friendly way. Dpa