German farmers protest with tractor drive near Frankfurt Airport
Hundreds of farmers demonstrated Saturday against the expiry of tax refunds for agricultural diesel with a protest drive around Germany's busiest airport in Frankfurt.
According to a police spokesman, farmers gathered with around 400 tractors - up to 2,000 had previously been expected.
The airport operator Fraport asked passengers to travel to the airport by public transport or to allow more time for the journey by car.
Although there were brief disruptions, there was no major chaos and access to the terminal was possible for passengers at all times, a spokesman said.
The protest is directed against the expiry of tax refunds for agricultural diesel. The subsidy is to be phased out by 2026.
German farmers have been protesting against the planned cuts nationwide for weeks. The demonstrations are also about what farmers see as overly strict regulations and excessive bureaucracy.
The farmers did not choose Frankfurt airport by chance. The protest was no longer just about agricultural diesel, but about fair competition, according to several of the participating farmers' organizations.
"What applies to aviation must also apply to us farmers: Aviation fuel is still not taxed because this would put German aviation at a competitive disadvantage," they said.
Frankfurt airport and the cargo sector symbolize the integration of the German economy and agriculture into global supply chains and markets, they said.
In Hamburg, some 60 demonstrators blocked a press distribution centre with several vehicles and an articulated lorry for several hours on Friday night, police said.
The demonstrators said they were protesting against the media coverage of the farmers' demonstrations, with one saying that the newspapers are only spreading lies.
As the activists blocked all three access roads to the company during the unannounced demonstration from around 23:30 (2230 GMT), a number of distribution vehicles were unable to enter or leave the company premises.
Several daily newspapers are delivered from the centre to sales outlets in Hamburg and the surrounding area.
The police initially held co-operation talks with the demonstrators, but failed to reach an agreement and subsequently broke up the gathering at around 2 am. The police took down the participants' personal details and their licence plate numbers.
The German government has watered down its savings plans for agriculture in the 2024 budget. The tax breaks for agricultural diesel will now be phased out gradually over the next few years.
Farmers in many other European countries are also protesting, including Poland, France, the Netherlands and Belgium, concerned about falling standards of living, low food prices and regulations that involve higher expenditure.
