Although the government partially backed down on Thursday January 4 on the elimination of tax advantages on non-road diesel (NGR), German farmers are not taking off. Road and motorway blockages are looming as the transport federation calls for people to follow suit.

As explained in our previous article, the German Constitutional Court rejected the 2024 budget presented by Olaf Scholz in November. Forced to make budget cuts, the chancellor opted to remove tax breaks on agricultural diesel and the tax on tractors, which triggered the anger of farmers in December.

Government concessions that farmers consider insufficient

The German coalition currently in power (made up of the Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Greens) has tried to calm things down. On January 4, the government declared that it was abandoning its plan to introduce a tax on agricultural and forestry vehicles. He also proposed a gradual elimination of tax breaks on agricultural diesel, from 2024 to 2026, instead of a total elimination. These concessions did not convince the German Farmers' Federation (DBV), which reiterated its calls for unprecedented demonstrations for the next two weeks. In Bavaria alone, 180 actions were registered. They start this Monday, January 8.

The unions' demands are clear. They plan to strike until the government renounces imposing any austerity measures on them in the annual budget which is being voted on. The Bundestag Budget Committee finalizes the federal budget for 2024 in the third week of January. It is for this reason that the biggest demonstration is announced a little before, for January 15, in Berlin.

However, the anger is no longer confined to the agricultural world, and is taking on the appearance of a general strike against the budgetary policy of the Scholz government.

A movement that takes on the appearance of a general strike.

read the article