Bundesregierung pulls the props on mining industry

The coalmines of Germany were condemned to death yesterday when Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, agreed to end state subsidies for the industry. The decision to end the payment of €2.5 billion (£1.6 billion) a year of taxpayers’ money will wipe out 37,000 jobs at the eight surviving pits. It effectively closes down what was once Germany’s most powerful industry, providing jobs for 500,000 people and exerting huge influence on policy. The threat of industrial action, and even a rerun of the miners’ strike that blighted the early years of the Thatcher Government in Britain, has been averted, however.