Farmers demanding higher produce prices demonstrated today with 200 tractors and a live pig as a mascot outside Germany's main stock exchange in Frankfurt, according to dpa. The rally by 2,500 farmers from six German states heard national farmers' union president Gerd Sonnleitner call for a government stimulus package for farming, similar to state guarantees for banks and industry and subsidies for home repairs and car purchases. The German government responded to a similar demonstration on Monday in Berlin by offering farmers an expanded tax break for diesel fuel. Sonnleitner said the latest demonstration was to keep the pressure up and ensure this offer was not retracted. Farmers approached central Frankfurt from several directions on the tractors and displayed their pig next to a city statue depicting a bull and a bear, which are symbols of the rise and fall of stock prices. Demonstrators held up signs saying: "Bankers get rescues. Farmers get income gaps." Sonnleitner said the government was rushing in to help 25,000 German workers at Opel car factories, but doing too little for 380,000 farm families.
