Farmers across Germany have begun a week-long strike to protest the government's plans to cut agricultural subsidies. The government has already rolled back its decision to slash fuel subsidies for farmers, after weeks of angry demonstrations. DW News political correspondent Matthew Moore was at the Brandenburg Gate where farmers gathered for the main Berlin demonstration
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NewsTranscript
00:00 So let's get the very latest from our political correspondent Matthew Moore
00:04 joining us from a very cold morning at the Brandenburg Gate. Matthew it
00:08 certainly looks like some of the farmers have already arrived there. They have
00:12 promised to paralyze traffic throughout Germany. Can you tell us what you're
00:16 seeing there? That's right Claire they certainly have paralyzed this this
00:22 boulevard this street beside me here is normally bursting with traffic on a
00:26 Monday morning like this but actually at the moment it's choked up with tractors
00:29 you can hear in the last few minutes we've heard their horns blaring and this
00:33 is just the center of Berlin but this protest, this is the first day
00:38 of a week of protests which will culminate in a massive demonstration
00:41 here in the city in the capital at the end of the week but today this is just
00:45 one of hundreds of protests across Germany. I think by the end of today
00:49 there won't be a German that hasn't come across some sort of disturbance in their
00:53 daily life because of the tractors and the farmers protesting across the
00:57 country. They're blocking roads, motorways here outside Berlin have been
01:01 blocked and train I spoke to one protesting farmer this morning who came
01:06 in on the train and he said his train was delayed because the farmers had
01:10 blocked one of the train tracks outside the train lines outside Berlin.
01:14 So it's just this is just one of many places where the farmers are getting
01:18 together to express really deep deep unsatisfaction and dissatisfaction with
01:24 the government here about a number of changes that have been brought in and
01:28 the Farmers Association have said that they want they basically called for
01:32 protests that have never been seen before in this country.
01:36 Well tell us a little bit more about what's exactly at issue here we have the
01:39 farmers upset by the federal government's planned reduction in
01:43 agricultural subsidies and yet some of those measures have already been rolled
01:47 back I take it that's not enough for the farmers who are protesting today.
01:54 Yeah exactly the the plan was to reduce some some subsidies there for diesel
02:01 that the farmers rely on for their tractors the government heard the
02:05 protests last month here in Berlin and decided that they would they would delay
02:11 some of those those changes but speaking to farmers today they're simply this this
02:17 is the underlying frustration with the government hasn't gone away and I think
02:22 the changes to the subsidies will not deal with their anger the frustration
02:26 the outrage frankly speaking to them they say this isn't it's actually about
02:30 more than just the politics it's about this feeling that the government here in
02:33 Berlin which is a coalition a three-way coalition government the first of its
02:37 kind in modern Germany is simply not in touch with the people out there in the
02:42 country that they're not listening that things take too long that they're too
02:45 busy arguing with each other and that the disconnect between the ordinary
02:50 Germans and the government is growing wider by the day and what's striking is
02:55 that normally you come to protests and the farmers they'll say we want this
02:59 change or that change what straight away the farmers were calling for a change in
03:03 government so much so that this has been kind of a focal point if you like for
03:09 wider frustration amongst Germans there's not just farmers here today I
03:13 spoke to people who are who are working in money exchanges who've come to
03:19 support the farmers it gives you a sense that this is a bigger problem than just
03:24 the agricultural industry for the government and and it kind of chimes
03:29 with a mood a dramatic mood change I would say in the country and you see
03:32 that in polling Claire just last week the frustration and the disapproval of
03:39 the government is at record highs I mean not seen since the euro crisis 15 or 14
03:45 years ago and and I think this year these protests are an expression of just
03:49 growing frustration both with the economy with the government that things
03:53 aren't going too well here in Germany well thank you so much for your
03:57 reporting that is Matthew more for us in Berlin
04:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]