STORY: Looking at fuel prices makes some people cringe. Fuel costs are high. And that’s why numerous transport companies protested against the high prices with a truck demonstration in Cologne on Wednesday. Here are the voices of some truckers who are demanding quick and clear answers from politicians: O-TON GERD FISCHER, TRANSPORT COMPANY “We went here last summer and we filled up between 1.30 and 1.50. If we look at the numbers now, that’s one euro more. With what authority is my first question. How do we get the fuel down again is my second question. Only the politicians, who keep driving prices up, can answer that for us. Be it with Corona, was the first excuse. Now it’s the war, is the second excuse. When it’s all over, something comes up again, and then the price goes up to three or four euros. What shoud that?” O-TON COSTAS STAVROPOULOS, TRANSPORT COMPANY “I think that’s affecting all the people at the moment, not just us. Every commuter and everyone who drives to work by car is affected just as much as it is here. And we also have employees, we also have to cover our costs, and with these gas prices at the moment, unfortunately that’s fatal for us.” O-TON TOBIAS HARTWIG, TRANSPORT COMPANY “I’ve jumped from 40 cents a liter. With my diesel bill, it’s about 30 percent that I suddenly have additional costs. I just don’t get that passed on to my customers. And of course the bigger I am, the higher the cost. And you can’t accumulate that many reserves in the business in several years.” Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck reacted to the problem on Wednesday in Oslo with these words: “Yesterday, or since yesterday, the Cartel Office is in the process of determining whether the prices at the petrol stations measured in terms of crude oil prices and also in terms of the petrol stations as a whole are high. Of course, I can’t anticipate that. But it shows that we are scrutinizing collusion and prices that are too high. And anyone who keeps prices artificially high in such a situation must know that they are trying to profit from the war into his pockets. That’s just not the way to go.” Hamster purchases were also made again in some supermarkets in view of the war in Ukraine. Cooking oil in particular is often sold out. Some supermarkets are already rationing the oil. In a Bonn supermarket, for example, customers are only allowed to buy two bottles per household. The cabinet launched a package of measures on Wednesday. These include: tax cuts for long-distance commuters and employees, a corona subsidy for needy adults and an immediate surcharge for children – the federal government wants to relieve consumers who are currently being hit by drastically increased costs.