Coach operators' protests shut streets of seven German cities

摘要

Around 300 empty tourist coaches with many owner-drivers at the wheel descended on Berlin on 27 May as protests against the government's continued ban on private tourist coach operation reached their climax. With horns blaring and flanked by police motorcyclists, the coaches drove in long convoys past the Bundestag parliament building and down central avenues, bringing traffic to a standstill in the government district of the capital. Similar #busretten (#save our buses) protests were held in Diisseldorf, Kiel, Mainz, Stuttgart, Wiesbaden and Dresden, involving a further 500 vehicles. Struggling operators say the government has given them hardly any information on when they will be able to reactivate thousands of coaches mothballed around the country. They are demanding financial aid from the government.