THOUSANDS of angry German miners halted their protest in Bonn yesterday after the embattled chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, agreed to hold talks with their leaders today. The miners have been besieging the government quarter since Monday to protest against a plan to halve government subsidies to the coal industry by 2005.
Dr Kohl called off a meeting with mining union leaders on Tuesday, complaining that the noisy demonstrations amounted to blackmail. The miners agreed to move their protest to the neighbouring city of Cologne until the talks are over and the chancellor struck a conciliatory note yesterday, claiming there was a good chance of resolving the conflict.
The miners claim that the government plan would lead to the loss of 60,000 of the present 85,000 jobs in their industry but they accept the necessity of reducing the current high level of state subsidy. Bonn subsidises the mines to the tune of DM10 billion (£3.75 billion) every year to keep down the price of German coal. Without the subsidy, a tonne of German coal would cost about DM280 compared with the world market price of less than DM80.
In one of the biggest and most colourful demonstrations Bonn has seen in many years, miners blocked roads, paraded in their underwear and roared through the city on motorcycles. They besieged the offices of Dr Kohl's Coalition partners in the Free Democrats, who are the driving force behind the plan to cut subsidies.
The opposition Social Democrats, who govern Germany's two biggest mining states, have offered strong support to the protesting miners, hundreds of whom have been sleeping in the party's Bonn headquarters.
In a separate protest, 8,000 building workers gathered in the centre of Berlin to demonstrate against rising unemployment and cheap foreign labour on building sites. Thousands of foreign workers, including many from Ireland, have flocked to Germany in recent years to capitalise on the construction boom that followed unification.
Dr Kohl promised yesterday to increase investment in the construction industry by DM25 billion in an effort to reduce Germany's record unemployment.
This week's demonstrations are the most powerful protests to date against public spending cuts introduced to help Germany qualify for Economic and Monetary Union. An overwhelming majority of Germans oppose the single currency but few have yet made the connection between EMU and the economic hardship caused by the government's deflationary policies.
After a meeting in Paris yesterday with his French counterpart, Germany's Finance Minister, Mr Theo Waigel, restated Bonn's commitment to launching EMU on schedule in 1999.
