Returning from holiday last week, the Green vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, was ambushed by farmers over moves to slash agricultural subsidies in the new year. On Monday, convoys of tractors were deployed to bring central Berlin to a halt, at the beginning of eight days of planned protests across the country.
This coincided with the reintroduction of the debt brake which had been suspended during the crises of the past three years. The net result has been a huge black hole in the public finances, which the SPD-led government has ill-advisedly attempted to fill through cuts and raising taxes.
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