Nobody wants it to have been
Farmers are foaming at the mouth over the cancellation of agricultural diesel
December 15, 2023, 1:50 p.m
In order to close the budget gap, the federal government wants to eliminate subsidies for motor vehicles used in agriculture. The farmers are angry and announce a protest. In the traffic light coalition, the FDP and the Greens blame each other for the measure.
The federal government’s planned abolition of the agricultural diesel subsidy and the vehicle tax exemption for agriculture is driving those affected onto the streets: a demonstration is to take place at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Monday under the motto “Too much is too much! Now it’s over.” , as the German Farmers’ Association DBV announced. Meanwhile, the FDP and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture blamed each other for the cuts.
DBV President Joachim Rukwied called on the traffic light coalition to withdraw its plans for the cuts. Otherwise, agriculture has no future. “If these plans are not withdrawn, there will be fierce resistance,” threatened Rukwied. “All farmers, all professional representatives and the entire agricultural industry” are called upon to take part, the DBV said in a statement. “The farmers will also show their dissatisfaction with a large number of tractors in Berlin.”
Despite the short notice of registration for the demonstration and the Christmas period, the DBV expects a high level of participation due to the great emotionality of the topic. The regional associations organized buses, car and tractor parades to Berlin.
Farmer President: “Come to Berlin!”
The cuts are part of the federal government’s budget consolidation following the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling. According to information from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the abolition of the concession on motor vehicle tax for forestry and agriculture should bring in 480 million euros annually. There was initially no further information on the savings potential of abolishing tax breaks for agricultural diesel.
Rukwied addressed the farmers in a video call and spoke of “a billion” euros in losses for farmers and called this “unacceptable”. “Come to Berlin,” he asked at the end of the video.
Meanwhile, the FDP and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture blamed each other for the measures. Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir from the Green Party spoke on Wednesday of a “disproportionate” burden on agriculture, which he considered “problematic”. The food policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Gero Hocker, countered on Friday that the “green proposal” had been introduced by Özdemir himself, had been assessed as “effective” by Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and “only found its way into the relief budget” .
Özdemir wanted to revise the subsidy – not eliminate it
The Ministry of Agriculture denied the accusation. A spokesman told the “Bild” newspaper that the Ministry of Food had “never made such a proposal.” As part of the internal budget preparation in the middle of the year, the FDP-led Finance Ministry instead raised the question of agricultural diesel subsidies for the first time in order to compensate for savings targets for future budgets from 2025. The Ministry of Agriculture then promised the Ministry of Finance “to examine a revision (not deletion!) of the agricultural diesel subsidy” if these released funds continue to benefit the transformation tasks of agriculture.
However, this approach was not pursued further because the burden on agriculture was too high. After the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling, Federal Minister Özdemir “expressly warned during the internal consultations against canceling agricultural diesel subsidies and depriving agriculture of these funds,” the “Bild” newspaper quoted the ministry spokesman as saying.
CDU boss Merz told the newspapers of the Funke media group that the traffic light government had “completely lost sight of our farmers in particular.” The cancellation of the tax subsidy for agricultural diesel is “a punch in the stomach for the rural economy”. The Bavarian Economics Minister and Free Voters leader Hubert Aiwanger called the removal of subsidies in the “Augsburger Allgemeine” a “slap in the face of farmers.” Anyone who classifies the production of food as climate-damaging work is “a danger to this country”.