Demonstrations starting Monday
Lindner to farmers: “Please turn back”
January 6, 2024, 3:07 p.m
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Politicians across party lines condemn the fact that angry farmers wanted to storm Federal Economics Minister Habeck’s ferry. However, there are different opinions about the planned protests next week. The FDP is calling for the action to be canceled – in contrast to the Union parties.
After the blockade of Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck’s ferry, FDP leader Christian Lindner appealed to farmers to remain peaceful during protests. “Don’t allow yourself to be infiltrated and exploited. You have lost your way, please turn back,” said the finance minister at the Epiphany meeting of the Liberals in Stuttgart. Protest must be proportionate and within the framework of the democratic order.
Protesting farmers blocked a ferry pier at the North Sea port of Schlüttsiel with their tractors on Thursday afternoon and prevented Habeck from leaving the ferry. The protest action caused widespread criticism in politics.
The dangerous situation in which Habeck was brought was “completely unacceptable”. “The damage to property, including the announced blockades, are disproportionate,” said Lindner, referring to past protests and those announced for the coming week. As usual, there can only be one consequence here: “Breach of the peace, coercion, damage to property – these are cases for the public prosecutor.”
Farmers’ association calls for continued diesel subsidy
Agriculture is not an industry like any other, because it has something to do with basic supplies. “This society has a responsibility for agriculture. But agriculture also has a responsibility for this society,” emphasized Lindner.
As a result of the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget ruling, the traffic light government decided to make billions in cuts and, among other things, to abolish benefits for farmers in vehicle tax and agricultural diesel. After violent protests, Berlin rowed back this week. The vehicle tax relief should remain and the diesel subsidy should not be abolished immediately, but gradually by 2026.
However, farmers’ protests continue. The German Farmers’ Association is calling for the diesel subsidy to be maintained in the long term and more recognition for the profession in general. Nationwide protests are planned for next week.
“If you want new subsidies, you also have to forego old ones.”
Lindner defended the planned subsidy cuts. “Especially an industry that is so heavily subsidized at European and national level will not be able to avoid every contribution to consolidation.” One cannot, on the one hand, want to benefit from the now reduced electricity tax and demand additional funding for stable conversions and, on the other hand, stick to old subsidies. “If you want new subsidies, you also have to forego old ones,” emphasized Lindner.
The Union parties support farmers’ adherence to planned protest actions next week. CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt criticized the blockade of Habeck’s ferry. But he understands the farmers’ protests.
At the beginning of the closed meeting of the CSU regional group in the Seeon monastery in Upper Bavaria, he described the Habeck incident as an “impossible” derailment “that should not take place like this.” The deputy leader of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Andrea Lindholz, also called the farmers’ protests “absolutely understandable”. The traffic light government wants to continue to close budget gaps at the expense of local agriculture, she told the “Rheinische Post”.
Radicalization of farmers feared
Union parliamentary group vice-president Steffen Bilger accused the federal government of making a “rotten compromise” because the abolition of the agricultural diesel subsidy was still planned. Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir “should work to ensure that farmers have good conditions to produce high-quality regional food. To do this, they need support for agricultural diesel,” Bilger told the “Rheinische Post”.
After the blockade campaign against Habeck, there are fears that farmers will become increasingly radical and the protests will be infiltrated. Bilger defended the farmers against this. “Farming families are predominantly business-oriented and have a keen sense of free riders who are actually not interested in farming,” he said. However, Lindholz also warned that the protests must remain within the framework of the rule of law. “Anything else is unacceptable and damaging to the democratic process.”