German farmers rally in Berlin to protest subsidy cuts
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00:00 They've been coming in since late last night.
00:02 In fact, so many that the police said you can no longer come in to park in front of
00:06 the Brandenburg Gate.
00:07 All of the spaces are taken.
00:08 We think some 5,000 vehicles will be, are in position now.
00:13 Some 10,000 demonstrators, 1,500 riot police.
00:16 And as you were saying, they've been angry throughout the week, throughout all of their
00:20 protests in various German cities about a diesel tax.
00:24 Now, the government backtracked on some of the measures it had to, well, it said it had
00:29 to put into place because of a 60 billion euro hole in the budget.
00:34 And they included a tax on new vehicles.
00:36 They backtracked on that.
00:37 And then on the diesel tax, they didn't backtrack on it, but they said that the reduction, or
00:43 I'd say elimination of it rather, would be stretched over three years.
00:46 That's not enough for the farmers who want more.
00:49 They want it scrapped entirely.
00:51 And later in the day, they will be meeting with leaders from the three parties that form
00:55 the coalition government here in Berlin.
00:57 But there is no sign of any further concession, just of discussion.
01:03 So Nick, this weekend, the German chancellor actually warned about extremists taking over
01:08 these protests in Germany.
01:10 Has that been the case at all?
01:14 Yes.
01:17 Olaf Scholz was on TV on Saturday saying protests are legitimate, but when they are transformed
01:23 into contempt for democracy and anger, then everyone loses.
01:29 And what he was talking about is a small constellation of different players actually piggybacking
01:35 these protests.
01:36 So the alternative for Germany, which is poised to come in first in three regional elections
01:42 in Eastern Germany, campaigning on the need to protect farmers and rural life.
01:48 And then you've got the Reisberger conspiracy theorists, various people.
01:51 That may just sound like local color, but they actually blocked the vice chancellor
01:56 from disembarking from a ferry after his vacation just two Thursdays ago.
02:00 So there's an element of sort of violence here.
02:03 They put gallows by the roadside and so on.
02:06 And there's alarm in the government and indeed in the intelligence services in Germany that
02:12 the alternative for Germany and other right wing forces have piggybacked on this movement.
02:17 And the head of the German Farmers Federation has said, we don't want you with us.
02:21 You have nothing to do with this.
02:22 Stay out of the protests.
02:23 And you go into the protests, people will say, stop filming them.
02:26 We're the farmers.
02:27 We should be the center of the tension.
02:29 But I think the far right sees here a political opportunity.