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The Telegraph
The Telegraph
3 Feb 2024
Jörg Luyken


German farmers blockade country’s biggest airport

Farmers in Germany blocked roads around the country’s busiest airport today as protests over prices and red tape spread across the continent.

Several hundred tractors blocked the streets leading to Frankfurt Airport throughout Saturday morning as part of a protest against a cut to fuel subsidies that was passed by the German parliament on Friday.

Farmers in Germany have been engaged in massive protests since Olaf Scholz’s  government said it would cut close to a billion euros in farm subsidies in response to a domestic budget crisis.

The hefty protests forced Berlin into concessions that included rowing back completely on a plan to make farmers pay road tax on farm vehicles.

Germany’s farmers’ union has signalled that it will only stop protesting once the subsidy cuts have been completely reversed.

Hundreds of farmers take to the road in tractors
Hundreds of farmers take to the road in tractors Credit: MICHAEL PROBST/AP

Roadblocks by German farmers followed similar protests across Europe, with farmers using their agricultural vehicles to block roads over what they see as excessive EU environmental rules and unfair competition from outside the bloc.

On Friday, farmers blocked border crossings on the Dutch-Belgian border with a government website showing delays on three motorways.

Meanwhile, a Polish farmers union announced a plan to blockade the border crossings to Ukraine starting on February 9.

“The passivity of the Polish authorities... regarding the import of agricultural produce and food products from Ukraine leave us with no other choice but to declare a general strike,” the farmers union Solidarity said in a statement.

In Greece, farmers have set up blocked roads in the north and centre of the country as they demand a reduction to EU regulation and swifter payouts of compensation for those affected by the flooding and wildfires that devastated parts of the country last summer.

Fuel subsidies

Romanian authorities have agreed to increase fuel subsidies after farmers there teamed up with hauliers to block streets over several weeks.

French farmers, meanwhile, dismantled roadblocks they had set up on motorways to Paris after wringing concessions out of the government on fuel duty, pesticides and other environmental issues.

“The worst of the crisis is now behind us, but the issues we have to deal with are ahead of us,” French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said on CNEWS TV.

Protests have also been organised in Portugal, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus in recent days.

Outside an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, farmers congregated in the centre of the Belgian capital with hundreds of tractors where they burned tyres in protest.

EU leaders responded immediately, announcing plans to shield farmers inside the bloc from cheaper imports from Ukraine and making concessions on land meant to be kept fallow for environmental reasons.