Germany has blamed “far-right extremists” and “enemies of democracy” for ongoing protests by farmers.
Police reported problems across several locations in Germany as agriculture vehicles parked up on major routes and slip roads.
Berlin’s Brandenbeg Gate was affected on Monday morning after dozens of tractors pulled up in freezing temperatures.
German farmers have staged a week-long protest after Olaf Scholz unveiled plans to end tax breaks on agricultural diesel.
At the beginning of a week of action protest german farmers, craftsmen and transport workers against the federal government's policies
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The decision, which will put many out of business, has been modified as the plan to abolish a car exemption for farming vehicles was also scrapped.
However, farmers' association DBV called the measures "absolutely insufficient" and is going ahead with this week's action.
Scholz announced the move to help fill a €17billion (£14.6billion) hole in Germany’s annual budget.
But Berlin’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned yesterday that “right-wing extremists and other enemies of democracy are trying to infiltrate and instrumentalise” farmer protests.
Germany’s vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, echoed Faeser’s comments.
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German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser
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He said: “There are calls circulating with fantasies of a coup. Extremist groups are forming, nationalist symbols are being openly displayed.”
Habeck added: “It is becoming clear that something has started to slip in recent years, which is limiting legitimate democratic protest and freedom of expression.”
Free Saxons, a small right-wing populist party founded in 2021, spoke at a rally outside the Semperoper opera house.
Alternative fur Deutschland (AFD) reportedly managed to join a farmers' protest in Stuttgart.
Former Die Linke member Sahra Wagenknecht has also launched a new party which mixes a left-wing approach to economics with restrictive views on migration.
An image from the German farmers' protest
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However, DBV chief Joachim Rukwied told RBB Inforadio they would make sure "we are not infiltrated".
AFD is reaching record levels of support in the opinion polls, with an INSA survey handing the populist party 23 per cent of the vote.
The centre-right Union coalition was just eight points ahead but SDP support has plummeted since the last election to just 16 per cent.
Elections to the Bundestag will next take place in October 2025.
However, regional polls will take place later this year in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia.
