A few days after the big farmers’ demonstration in Berlin, the issue is once again occupying the Bundestag. The agricultural report is actually supposed to be discussed, but CDU leader Merz is using the opportunity for a general settlement with the government. The traffic light parties are now announcing a legislative package for agriculture.
Friedrich Merz is not exactly a surfer type, but that’s exactly what he decided to do this morning: In the Bundestag, the CDU leader tried to ride the wave of protests that farmers and their allies in trade and logistics have swept through Germany in the past few days . It was perfectly fitting that the discussion… Agricultural policy report of the federal government was on the agenda.
Normally this is more for the gourmets of political fare, who dutifully chew through all the contentious issues surrounding subsidies, farm sizes and pork production rates. But this time everything is different – the farmers have dumped an argumentative pile of rubbish in front of the Chancellery and the Bundestag, so that everything was to be expected, except for a calm technical debate. For its part, the traffic light coalition wanted to use the opportunity to send a signal of friendship to the farmers. SPD, Greens and FDP decided a motion for a resolutionin which they announced a legislative package to relieve the burden on agriculture.
When farmers are angry, that’s a signal for every CDU leader to turn up the anger controls too. Rural areas are the heartland of the party, its base and source of strength. So Merz did what he does best: lecture.
“Agricultural policy is in the context of a much larger discussion in our country,” he said in the plenary session of the Bundestag. “The demonstrations are an expression of ever-increasing dissatisfaction and pent-up frustration, which is particularly directed against the federal government and the factions and parties that support it.”
He pointed to the government bench and noticed that apart from Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, not a single cabinet member was sitting there, let alone the Chancellor. Merz exclaimed that one could not express greater “disrespect” and “disrespect”. However, Scholz is not the first Chancellor not to attend the debate about the agricultural policy report – on the other hand, he has actually hardly shown any involvement in the farmers’ issue so far. The AfD promptly submitted a request to summon Scholz and Economics Minister Robert Habeck. The Union faction then abstained and the motion fell through.
Özdemir spoke in front of Merz and struck a much more conciliatory tone. “The farmers have had enough of us pointing fingers at each other,” he said shortly after he took a swipe at the Union – some were acting as if the last few decades had been “travelling in dugout canoes on the Amazon looking for gold “. Anyone who doesn’t show humility should at least “show political responsibility.” But the Minister of Agriculture became more specific, spoke out in favor of an animal welfare cent and called for the supply chain law to be further tightened. Only the subsidy for agricultural diesel should continue to be canceled. The compromise was “fair and justifiable,” said the minister.
Merz didn’t spend much time on details like these to ease the burden on agriculture. He aimed at the big picture. The traffic light coalition is increasingly noticing that essential parts of its policy do not find a majority among the population. “You are governing against the majority of voters,” he shouted. In doing so, the traffic light politicians not only jeopardized approval for themselves, but also “increasingly” for the institutions of “our democratic constitutional state.” This is driving more and more voters “into the arms of the terrible simplifiers from the left and especially from the far right, especially into the arms of the right-wing populists,” he claimed.
His criticism of the new citizenship law, which is also due to be passed this week, had nothing to do with the agricultural report. This is an “accelerated naturalization for people who predominantly come from Turkey and the Arab region,” he claimed. This reference to the origin was enough of a problem description for the CDU boss. The FDP, on the other hand, defends the plans by saying that in the future only those who have a job and have not been shown to be anti-Semitic can be naturalized. However, this is then possible after just three years.
SPD promises legislative package by summer
Merz then complained that the traffic light politicians shouldn’t constantly wave the Nazi club against people who think differently. At the same time, he spoke out against a ban on the AfD and said that it was the remedy of those who no longer know how to help themselves. He ended his tirade with a call “to reflection”, which was reminiscent in tone and form of his last lecture when he insulted Scholz as a “plumber of power” a few months ago.
SPD parliamentary group deputy Matthias Miersch then wanted to talk about agriculture again and responded to the traffic light parties’ motion for a resolution. It formulates seven questions that need to be clarified. The topics: reducing bureaucracy, supply chain law, animal welfare, rental prices, help with alternative fuels, tax relief. Miersch announced that there would be a legislative package by summer. “We put ourselves under pressure,” he said.
A little later, CSU politician Alexander Dobrindt complained that this was an “agricultural policy insolvency application” and called for the tax refunds on agricultural diesel to be maintained. But that shouldn’t happen. This Thursday, the Budget Committee will finalize the final details of the 2024 budget in the adjustment meeting. After that, nothing normally works, the additional burden on the farmers would practically be over – unless Scholz steps down from the Chancellery and intervenes. The budget law is due to be passed in the Bundestag at the beginning of February.
Meanwhile, farmers’ president Joachim Rukwied said at the start of the Green Week in Berlin that the previous protests had only been the “foreshock”. If nothing changes, an “eruption” may occur.