SDP Chancellor Olaf Scholz found himself the subject of a lively farmers’ picket on Thursday afternoon as the embattled German premier cold-shouldered local agricultural organisations pressuring him to speak directly to protestors.
Security was heightened ahead of Scholz’s scheduled visit to Cottbus—in a region known to be a hotbed of agrarian discontent. A police cordon prevented direct confrontation between Scholz and the farmers as hundreds lined the streets to protest the hapless chancellor, who was there to launch a new railway components factory. Convoys of tractors attempted to encircle the northeastern German town.
