Real relief required
Farmers’ association signals willingness to compromise on agricultural diesel
March 9, 2024, 7:01 a.m
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Farmers have been protesting for weeks against announced cuts in subsidies for agricultural diesel. The farmers’ association appears willing to compromise, but continues to push for relief for farmers.
The German Farmers’ Association (DBV) has signaled its willingness to reach agreement in the dispute over tax exemption for agricultural diesel and does not want to insist on receiving the full subsidy. “We are willing to compromise if, in return for increased fuel costs, there are real reliefs elsewhere,” said DBV General Secretary Bernhard Krüsken to “Welt am Sonntag.” “We don’t want to pretend to our members that whoever shouts loudest is best is heard.”
The Union faction in the Bundestag is calling for a quick agreement. “It is advisable to accommodate the farmers now – not only for reasons of content, but also to remove the basis for any radicalization tendencies of individuals who do not represent the broad mass of the peacefully protesting peasantry,” said deputy Union parliamentary group leader Steffen Bilger. Any possible compromise must be discussed with the farmers, otherwise it will fail to achieve its goal.
Countries make suggestions
At a meeting on Wednesday, the federal states called on the federal government to provide relief for agriculture as quickly as possible. It is not just a waiver of further burdens that is necessary, the Prime Ministers explained after their conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. They also called for “agriculture to be effectively and substantially relieved as quickly as possible.”
After the mediation committee of the Federal Council and Bundestag on the planned growth package, the states had already made it clear that they expected proposals in favor of farmers before the next Federal Council meeting on March 22nd. Individual countries now emphasized in minutes that they still considered the cuts in agricultural diesel to be wrong in the current situation. Union-led states had tied their approval to the Growth Opportunities Act, which had already been passed in the Bundestag, to the reversal of these cuts.
Bavaria also specifically called for a tax exemption for biofuels and the opportunity for farmers to build up tax reserves for bad years. According to the statement in the minutes, Schleswig-Holstein also demanded a package to relieve bureaucracy and reporting obligations.
People were injured in many places during the farmers’ protests over the past few weeks. This was the result of a survey by “Spiegel” among the interior ministries of the federal states. In Brandenburg, five people were injured in an undeclared action last Monday. Farmers had distributed manure, manure and wood on a federal road during the night. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the farmers’ protests led to a total of 14 traffic accidents. There are 43 criminal investigations pending in Saxony-Anhalt, and 15 meetings were not registered.