France's farmers block roads amid popular ongoing protests, Germany's railway workers begin longest strike action ever

Nacho Doce
Reuters
Wed, 24 Jan 2024 14:58 UTC

Protesting farmers blocked roads across France on Wednesday to press the government to ease its drive for lower consumer prices and loosen environmental regulations.

Many farmers struggle financially and say their livelihoods are threatened as food retailers are increasing pressure to bring down prices after a period of high inflation.

Comment: Supermarkets have been caught artificially raising their prices for a variety of goods, meanwhile they're refusing to pay producers the cost of production.

In addition, without subsidies a significant number of Europe's farmers would go out of business, however this is largely down to government incompetence and corruption; such as the anti-Russia sanctions restricting access to affordable fuel and fertilizer, alongside strict regulations that aren't applicable to goods imported from other countries.

"There are too many regulations," Thomas Bonnet, the head of a youth farmers' union in southwestern France's Castelnaudary area, told Reuters at a blockade.

"We'd like to be able to work like in some of the neighbouring countries, to produce, cultivate, do our job."

Arnaud Rousseau, head of the powerful FNSEA farming union, told France 2 TV he could not rule out that protests could disrupt the Paris region. The group will publish dozens of specific demands by the end of the day, he said.

Farming policy has long been a sensitive issue in France, the European Union's biggest agricultural producer, with thousands of independent producers of wine, meat and dairy. Farmers have a track record of disruptive protests.

Fearing a spillover from farmer unrest in Germany, Poland and Romania, President Emmanuel Macron's government has already withdrawn a contested draft farming law that would have helped more people become farmers.

Macron is also wary of farmers' growing support for the far-right ahead of the European Parliament elections in June.

Comment: This 'far-right fear' nonsense is a tactic being used by the establishment across Europe to smear people and movements whose legitimate grievances expose their corruption; Germany is employing similar methods to divide people and smear its farmers, as well as the AfD party.

However, judging by the thousands of people attending the 'anti-far right' protests in Germany this week, the establishment strategy is having some impact. Considering Germany's support for Israel, one wonders how many of those protesters were also protesting Germany's descent (back) into being genocide facilitators?

The unrest is the first major challenge for new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and also resonates across Europe.

"The reality is that most of the farmers cannot make their living off the products they are producing," Thomas Waitz, a Green EU lawmaker from Austria, who is also a farmer and beekeeper, told Reuters.

As the EU's Green Deal of environmental policies is rolled out, farmers' increased work and costs need to be reflected in product prices, Waitz said. He urged the 27-member EU to make sure imported goods also have to meet high environmental standards to avoid unfair competition.

A small group of French farmers also protested near the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels.

"The message is that we should stop being caught in the middle," said Philippe Thomas, 57, a cereals farmer from a Meuse in eastern France. "They impose more and more draconian standards on us, but on the other hand our produce isn't protected."

In France, farmer discontent over prices is particularly acute in the dairy sector, where producers say the government's anti-inflation push has undermined legislation known as EGALIM designed to safeguard farmgate prices.

Dairy producers are currently in dispute with Lactalis, the world's largest dairy group, over prices, and talks with an arbitrator are due on Thursday.

"If the EGALIM law is respected there will be far fewer protests, that's the case in the dairy sector, I can tell you," Thierry Roquefeuil, head of dairy farmer union FNPL, told reporters on Tuesday.

Comment: Just 10 days ago a number of other EU countries saw major protests from their farmers: 30,000 attend 7th day of farmer protests in Germany, truckers & farmers protest for 5th day in Romania

And Germany's transport workers are set to begin their second strike action of the month:

Much of Germany is expected to grind to a halt on Wednesday when train drivers begin a six-day strike - the longest industrial action in the national railway's history.

The strike, which will start at 2am on Wednesday for passenger trains and on Tuesday evening for freight, is taking place amid tensions and scenes of unrest across the country.

Farmers supported by transport companies have blocked thoroughfares in towns and cities with their tractors, ostensibly over government proposals to phase out subsidies on fuel, while an estimated 1 million people have taken to the streets to campaign against the far right after revelations members of the AfD discussed plans for the mass expulsion of foreigners and German passport holders with a migrant background.

Rather than 1 million 'far right protesters', other news outlets have them at tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands, but, obviously the propaganda media's agenda is to emphasise and encourage people to think these protests are much bigger and more influential.

Meanwhile they fail to mention that Germany's farmer protest enjoyed the support of at least 69% of the population - which is significantly higher than those supporting the 'anti far-right' protests.

The GDL trade union, which includes train drivers and other rail workers, has said it was forced into the strike, which is set to continue until 2pm on Monday, after bosses at Deutsche Bahn (DB), the national rail operator, "tried to trick" the workers over their demands for improved pay and conditions.

DB has accused GDL, which has about 40,000 members, of "holding the country hostage", insisting its demands would increase the company's wage bill by 50%.

Neither side in the railway dispute has sat together around a negotiating table since November and the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said it would "not be appropriate" for him to involve himself in labour disputes when called on to arbitrate.

But the deadlock in talks has only deepened disgruntlement at Germany's leadership, on top of a cost of living crisis that critics have said is fuelling the rise of the AfD as key regional elections loom in the autumn.

Lost of factors are contributing the rise of populist parties, and it's primarily due to the overwhelming incompetence and corruption of the ruling parties.

Industry bosses have estimated that the strike will cost Europe's biggest economy, which recently fell into recession, about €100m (£85m) a day and warned of the reputational damage the strike would do to German business. Industry is already under strain over supply chain issues linked to the Red Sea attacks on shipping, with some companies having had to reduce production.

Germany's economy slipped into recession well before the Houthis intervened to stop the genocide. Economic issues are largely tied to the backfiring sanctions and the nefarious green agenda.

Six out of 10 of Europe's freight corridors go through Germany, so a considerable knock-on effect across mainland Europe is also inevitable, not to mention the effect on continental train connections.

Earlier this month DB failed in its attempts to get a court to halt the strikes.

GDL is calling for a reduction in employees' working week from 38 to 35 hours with no drop in pay. It also wants an extra €550 a month for workers plus an inflation compensation package to be renegotiated after 12 months.

DB has offered workers an average 4.8% pay increase starting from August, and an additional 5% from spring 2025. An inflation compensation package would be paid for a fixed period of 32 months.

It said that from 2026, employees would have the chance to reduce working time from the average 38 hours a week to 37, with extra pay for those who stuck to their current working week. DB has said further cuts in working time would exacerbate an already extremely burdensome worker shortage.

Environmentalist groups have expressed concern about the impact of the strike on CO₂ emissions as well as consumers' long-term trust in rail travel.

Germany's support for the Gaza genocide is resulting in many times more CO₂ emissions; but we've not heard much from the environmentalists in that regard.

Domestic flight routes by the national carrier Lufthansa have been increased to plug the gap, and car hire companies have reported a massive increase in bookings as people look for alternative ways to travel.

Germans who cannot work from home are legally obliged to make their own alternative travel arrangements.

DB is under considerable strain because of a sustained poor record on punctuality and reliability due to what it puts down to long-term underfunding in infrastructure and a labour shortage.

Gitta Connemann, the chair of MIT, the business wing of the conservative CDU/CSU parties, has called for changes to laws governing strikes in areas of critical infrastructure.

"Strikes are a part of free collective bargaining, and an expression of democracy, but in this case it is not only affecting railway employees, but millions of people from commuters to travellers, businesses, the economy, here and elsewhere in Europe," she told the broadcaster DLF.

"We need industrial action laws like other countries have to ensure that critical infrastructure isn't threatened in this way."

DB has an unusual ownership structure: it was privatised in the 1990s after German reunification but remains in government hands, with the state its sole shareholder. Claus Weselsky, the head of GDL, who is on the verge of retirement, said the government's decision to privatise was to blame for a lot of its current woes.

Footage from the protests in France over the past few days: