High-speed ICE trains stand still in front of the Frankfurt skyline at Frankfurt Main Station, western Germany, on January 10, 2024, as German train drivers begin a three-day nationwide strike after the collapse of wage talks.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | AFP | Getty Images
A strike by the GDL train drivers’ union has brought rail travel in Germany to a near standstill, with national rail operator Deutsche Bahn only running an emergency timetable for passengers.
Meanwhile, the head of the German Farmers Association DBV said on Wednesday It said Germany has vowed to escalate the protests that began earlier this week when hundreds of tractors and trucks stopped at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
In more familiar scenes in neighboring France, farmers in Germany blocked roads and highways with convoys of tractors and marched through major cities in an attempt to pressure the government to cancel all plans to cut subsidies to farmers.
“It’s looking increasingly like a general strike. We haven’t seen a general strike in Germany since 1906,” Carsten Nickel, deputy director of research at consultancy Teneo, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Thursday.
“It’s something new in Germany. This concerted action and level of political violence… the economy minister narrowly escaped, for example, physical altercations with an angry crowd of demonstrators last weekend. These are scenes we have never seen in Germany before.” Nickel said.
“We are clearly heading into a crucial election year, right? Three regional state elections and the European Parliament elections, so I don’t think this really bodes well,” he added.
Robert Habeck, Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, speaks to journalists on board the Airbus A350 on the flight to Amman.
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In a sign of rising political tensions over the budget crisis, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck was prevented from getting off a ferry upon his return from special leave last week.
Up to 300 farmers were said to have prevented the ferry from docking in the north of the country, German broadcaster Dostis Welle reported. mentioned on January 5, in a protest condemned by lawmakers and the agricultural lobby group DBV.
Germany’s coalition government, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has sought to repurpose tens of billions of euros in unused pandemic funds to transform the economy and address the climate crisis. But budget plans were thrown into disarray in November, when the reallocation of emergency funds was determined to be unconstitutional.
The government has since backed away from some of its plans for the agriculture sector, saying last week that tax breaks for agricultural vehicles would continue, and fuel subsidies would be phased out rather than being completely abolished imminently.
The German Farmers Association said these steps were not enough and pledged to continue the protests.
Farmers park their tractors in the city center as they demonstrate against government plans to abolish diesel tax subsidies on agricultural vehicles in Dresden, eastern Germany, on January 10, 2024.
Jens Schlueter | AFP | Getty Images
“This Constitutional Court ruling has been issued [in November]. “The government responded with a series of cuts to, among other things, agricultural subsidies and that seems to be the thing that sparked these protests,” Teneo’s Nickel said.
He continued: “Interestingly, the government actually responded in December and backed away from some proposals for previous agricultural cuts.”
“So, I think there’s also an element where these farmers probably have the idea that ‘well, if we keep paying, maybe the rest of the stuff will get scrapped as well’ and that ultimately comes down to a government that is both politically respectable and also in terms of style and communications internally very divided. “
A German government spokesperson was not immediately available when contacted by CNBC.
— CNBC’s Sophie Kiderlein contributed to this report.