Thousands of Truckers Protest Oil Prices in Berlin

By Adam Tanner

BERLIN (Reuters) - Thousands of German truckers, angry at high oil prices, blocked Berlin with a 10-km (six mile) long protest convoy Tuesday, but the government said it would not give in to their demands for lower energy taxes.

Police said about 6,500 trucks, tourist coaches and tractors -- more than double the number expected -- lined the city's main east-west axis ending at the landmark Brandenburg Gate and gathered elsewhere in the city. Another 350 truckers could not get into Berlin and took a shuttle bus to a central rally.

``We want to show our presence and show that with higher oil prices there will be fewer jobs,'' said trucker Dirk Teabus.

``Chancellor, we have had enough,'' read a sign on some trucks, referring to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's refusal to cut fuel duties amid sharply higher world oil prices.

His only concession has been to offer commuters extra income tax breaks, but he has done nothing for the transport industry. Germany's small truck and coach operators say fierce competition across Europe means they cannot recoup their costs.

``When we disappear from the highways and foreign truckers take our jobs then we won't be paying German taxes any more,'' said trucker Joachim Stamm.

The demonstration was remarkably well-disciplined for an event aimed at bringing chaos to the capital and the police praised protesters for their restraint.

Cars Stay At Home

Many Berliners who did not heed calls for an ecological ''car-free'' day last week left their vehicles at home Tuesday, using trains and the city's many bicycle lanes. The public transport authority offered cheap all-day fares.

Reuters Photo Many streets around the center were nearly empty, offering far quicker than usual trips for motorists who dared to drive.

Truckers continued to arrive in the city in separate columns escorted by police to assure an orderly procession from gathering points in the surrounding countryside. Because of the tight police control and organization, patient motorists could still sometimes edge past the convoys.

Police estimated about 2,500 people attended a lunchtime rally at the Brandenburg Gate, next to the Reichstag parliament building, that included a concert and speeches.

Over the past week trucks and tractors have held up traffic in Stuttgart, Hanover, Leipzig, Dresden and Munich. Protesters also called for a national slowdown on motorways across the country for Tuesday afternoon.

But Germany has seen few of the mass blockades which brought turmoil to Britain, France and Belgium earlier this month and the government has said it will not follow other European countries such as France and Italy in lowering fuel taxes.

One factor has been strict German laws that leave unauthorized protesters exposed to heavy claims for compensation if they disrupt others' business.

Transport Minister Reinhard Klimmt Tuesday morning repeated the government's refusal to lower petrol taxes.

Opposition conservatives want the government to follow the example set last week by the United States and sell part of Germany's strategic oil reserves in a bid to lower current oil prices -- a move Berlin is resisting.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000926/wl/energy_germany_dc_5.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 26, 2000

Answers

Nando Times

Truckers block Berlin streets to protest high gas prices

By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press

BERLIN (September 26, 2000 8:59 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Thousands of German truckers clogged the streets around the capital's center Tuesday, demanding relief from spiraling gas prices. And they got some when the government offered low-interest loans to some trucking companies.

Transport Minister Reinhard Klimmt said the loans would be given to mid-sized trucking companies based in Germany that are running into cash shortages because of high fuel costs. The step comes on top of concessions the government offered to commuters last week.

Protests were also held Tuesday in Spain and Greece, part of a monthlong series of demonstrations across Europe against the high cost of fuel.

By the morning, about 2,000 trucks had blocked the tree-lined avenue that runs through Berlin's central Tiergarten park to the Brandenburg Gate, where 5,000 trucks were expected for a demonstration calling on Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government to relax an "ecology tax" that, along with higher oil prices, has led to more expensive gas.

"The ecology tax creates jobs - abroad!!!" read one protest banner.

Police said traffic chaos was avoided, however, because many commuters heeded warnings about tie-ups and stayed off the roads.

Karl-Heinz Schmidt, head of a national association of truck drivers, told ARD television that the protest was the "last chance" for the truckers to seek relief. He said the high gas prices have endangered 100,000 jobs, and his group is in negotiations with the government seeking to get the same concessions that other drivers in Europe have won from their governments.

Schroeder has said repeatedly that he would not cut the ecological tax.

While police reported few traffic tie-ups, passengers aboard a boat traveling into Berlin said they saw traffic jams stretching back 12 miles from the city. Others inconvenienced by the demonstration also showed little sympathy for the truckers.

"Do we really need so many trucks? There are ships and trains that could do this," said Michael Helmchen, 64, a management consultant who left his car at home and was walking to work. "Everyone can lose their jobs at a moment's notice in today's world."

In the southern city of Nuremberg, about 140 protesting farmers on tractors drove through the city, but traffic also was left unsnarled.

In Spain, Barcelona markets ran out of fresh fish Tuesday while supplies in Valencia ran low after a week of fishermen's strikes and blockades to protest rising fuel costs.

Hundreds of Mediterranean fishermen, who stopped fishing a week ago to protest diesel prices, have blockaded the Valencia and Barcelona markets for a week to halt fish deliveries.

In Seville, farmers with tractors and trucks surrounded a regional fuel depot to stop fuel deliveries.

Greek motorists lined up at gas stations Tuesday for a second day over fears that a trucker strike there would lead to fuel shortages.

Truck drivers and owners had called an indefinite strike on Monday to protest government plans to deregulate their profession. They are also demanded fuel tax cuts.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 26, 2000.