This Wednesday, Germany faces potential traffic chaos. On the one hand, the train drivers' strike lasted for three days, resulting in a severe impact on train services across the country;Farmers, on the other hand, are angry at the planned cuts in subsidies, persistently ** and clogging roads. This poses a huge challenge for Germany's transport system.
According to German media on January 10, the strike of the train drivers' union GDL was approved on Tuesday, while the temporary injunction applied by German rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) at the labor court in Frankfurt was rejected. During the strike, rail services will operate on emergency schedules with limited schedules, forcing millions of DB passengers to cancel their trips or find other modes of transportation.
DB said 80% of long-distance services will be cancelled, while regional lines will be affected to varying degrees. In addition, freight train drivers will continue to strike until Friday night.
The train drivers' union, the GDL, demanded higher wages while reducing working hours from 38 hours to 35 hours per week. This is already the third strike and the largest since GDL began negotiations with DB and other operators since November last year.
GDL Chairman Klaus Wesselski said the strike would continue until the GDL's demands were met. He called on DB to come up with a "substantial" **. DB proposes to give drivers multiple options in terms of working hours per week, ranging from 35 to 40 hours per week.
At the same time, German farmers' activity against the planned subsidy cuts has continued to escalate. Since Monday, farmers have been blocking multiple highway entrances with their tractors and holding rallies in towns and cities. These activities have caused considerable traffic trouble.
Some commentators have criticized conservatives for supporting farmers' activities after denouncing the previous generation of climate activists for using similar tactics. At the same time, there are fears that the far right is exploiting the anger of the peasants for its own political ends.
In a newspaper interview on Wednesday, German Agriculture Minister Zim Özdemir said he understood farmers' concerns, believing that many farmers feared that their interests were being ignored in a political landscape dominated by urban actors. However, he warned that the current social climate could lead to people no longer interacting with each other, no longer trusting each other, and being extremely suspicious of each other, as the United States has done.
Finally, the simultaneous occurrence of the train drivers' strike and the agricultural activities brought great challenges to the German transport system and the country. In the face of such a complex situation, Germany must work hard to move forward with the adoption of the 2024 budget. For train drivers and farmers, their demands and concerns need to be taken seriously in order to reach a common solution, rebuild trust and cooperation, and avoid further tears in society.