Massive farmer protests break out in Germany

 

Parked tractors in front of German Parliament. CNBC/Getty.

A massive protest of farmers have broken out in Germany in response to economic restrictions. CNBC. The farmers are upset about proposed removals of fuel subsides and tax breaks for farming. The farmers say that this would destroy their livelihood as they would not be able to pass the cost increase onto consumers. The government backed off on some of the restrictions, saying the tax breaks would continue but the subsidies would be phased out over three years instead of instantly, though the protesting farmers rejected this. Germany is facing a massive budget crisis worth tens of billions of euros due to a court ruling saying that Coronavirus emergency funds could not be used for the general budget. The protests have involved blocking roads with vehicles, hay and manure.  

My Comment:

This reminds me of other major protests against the government such as the Canadian trucker protests and the farmer protests in The Netherlands. Unlike far-left protests these folks are actually protesting something valid, the attack against farmers in Germany. 

I don't agree with some of the tactics here. I am opposed in general to blocking roads and highway given how counterproductive they are. Even when the cause is just it just isn't worth it most of the time and it is pretty much guaranteed to push fence sitters against you, even if your cause is just. I do have to say that it is absolutely hilarious that they are using manure to do this though.

The elephant in the room is the fact that Germany could very easily cover their massive budget problems if they just changed their policies. The article didn't mention it but a major reason that this shortfall exists is the absolutely moronic stuff Germany is spending their money on. The country is wasting billions of dollars on green energy for basically no reason. If they simply reduced that nonsense they could absolutely pay off their budget shortfall. 

They are also wasting money on the war in Ukraine. Not only has Germany provided billions of euros to pay for Ukraine's government, they utterly destroyed their own economy with their economic sanctions on Russian fuel. Would these subsidies even be necessary if they hadn't artificially raised prices with their sanctions? 

This is another example of normal people protesting instead of far-left activists. These protests have had mixed results. January 6th was a failure in the United States and the Yellow Vests protests in France had a limited effect. But the Canadian trucker protests were successful in ending most Coronavirus restrictions, not only in Canada but globally. The Canadian truckers paid a huge price for it though and it remains to be seen if the Germans will go as tyrannical as Justin Trudeau did in Canada. 

I do think that they can put a lot of pressure on a German government that is already under siege. I think they will have to either give the truckers what they want or try to go full tyranny and break these protests up. Of course, the smart thing to do would be to make cuts elsewhere but if they were going to do the smart thing they wouldn't be in this mess in the first place...