report
Boos for Finance Minister Lindner, loud criticism of the traffic light plans: The farmers’ demonstration in Berlin shows that many farmers are not just concerned about agricultural diesel.
The farmers called, restaurateurs, craftsmen and shipping companies also came. This Monday there are tractors, trucks and vans from all over Germany in the streets around the Brandenburg Gate. According to estimates, there will be around ten thousand people in the end; the assembly authority counts 8,500.
For many, it’s about more than cuts
That’s not enough for the men in the front row. “The whole country should actually demonstrate,” says a carpenter from Saxony. Demand in his industry, construction, has collapsed. At the same time, the traffic light coalition is driving up material costs. New elections are needed. The farmer and the roofer next to him nod.
Further back, a farmer from Lower Saxony has pulled three figures in suits in front of his tractor. The faces of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are stuck on them, with the words: “The scourge of our country” underneath.
“Just okay,” says a transport operator from Baden-Württemberg. Their own sign reads “Protest fairly and democratically.” She calls for a reduction in the double burden caused by higher CO2 taxes and truck tolls. There is no need for a change of government.
Traffic light submitted Compromise suggestions
And the traffic lights? This has at least made some progress for the farmers before the start of the protest week, which culminates here. The vehicle tax exemption will no longer be abolished and the diesel privilege will only be gradually phased out. There will be no more movement, said Chancellor Scholz.
The Green Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir has just announced an animal welfare tax instead: higher prices for meat, milk, eggs – more money for farmers. Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP, however, is planning to reduce bureaucracy.
Shrill sounds at the demos
The SPD agricultural politician Franziska Kersten, who observed the protest on site, supports both proposals. An animal welfare tax, for example, “would make the consumer responsible.” A change to the fertilizer regulations is also conceivable.
That might not be enough for the demonstrators. We hear here again and again that the changes to truck tolls, agricultural diesel and vehicle taxes need to be completely reversed. And some are calling for new elections.
There were shrill sounds at the demonstrations of the past few days. In some places, the AfD and right-wing extremists tried to take over the protests.
Farmer President want “more confident” become
This is also how the association representatives who are now speaking on the stage in front of the Brandenburg Gate see it. Farmers President Joachim Rukwied, a grain and wine farmer from near Heilbronn, speaks of a “rotten compromise”.
“Our issues have to go,” shouts Rukwied. “Too much is too much.” Politics must get out of the Berlin bubble, otherwise there will be a long-term supply shortage because agriculture will disappear. Farmers will therefore appear even more self-confident in the future than before.
However, Rukwied is not very specific about what he wants other than reversing the traffic light decisions. He says that organic rules need to be “adapted to practice”. In the past, however, farmers had opposed a tightening of fertilizer regulations and the mandatory setting aside of areas for nature conservation goals.
Now Rukwied is determined: Until a solution is found, the tractors will remain on the road. Immediately after him, Dirk Engelhardt from the Federal Association of Road Haulage Logistics and Waste Disposal (BGL) announced the prospect of a multi-day strike in his industry.
Yellow card for Lindner
Finance Minister Lindner listens to all this on stage. Theresa Schmidt, chairwoman of the Association of German Rural Youth, presents Lindner with a yellow card. The traffic lights are warned.
Many demonstrators have already moved on. They boo and whistle when the names Scholz or Özdemir are mentioned. There are several chants of “traffic lights must go” or “liar”.
When Lindner himself steps up to the podium, the crowd boos so long that Farmer President Rukwied asks for moderation. The moderation team itself had repeatedly heated up the demonstrators before Lindner’s appearance.
Lindner remains firm on agricultural diesel
The finance minister presents himself as a champion for the farmers. He tries to collect sympathy points as a horse owner and hunter – in vain. He talks about the “left-wing extremist infiltration of the climate movement” and about cuts in asylum benefits and citizens’ benefits. That doesn’t make the dissatisfaction go away either.
Finally, Lindner goes on the offensive. He shouts: “You can’t tell me that you’re there because of the agricultural diesel.” He says the protests have “already been successful.” Because one cut has been withdrawn, the other is now to be extended.
This leaves farmers with “a fair contribution,” says Lindner. The whistling, booing and shouting are loudest now. The Bavarian farmers’ president Günther Felßner stands next to Lindner on stage and encourages the crowd with his arms. Smoke pots are thrown. The police have to intervene.
Lindner is undeterred by this and gives examples of how to reduce bureaucracy, which he suggests to farmers instead: tax exemption from risk reserves, easier breeding, down with the “organic standards that have been excessive since Renate Künast”. Now is the opportunity to discuss it, says Lindner.
Farmers and CDU are putting their money where their mouth is Budget consultations
After this appearance, the discussion will continue to revolve around agricultural diesel. The Union is putting pressure on us. Saxony-Anhalt’s Agriculture Minister Sven Schulze said on the sidelines of the demo that the ball was in the Bundestag’s court. “I appeal to the traffic light representatives to completely reverse both deletions,” said the CDU politician.
Farmer President Rukwied is already on his way to a meeting with the leaders of the three traffic light factions. A little more than two hours later, he stands in the farmers’ association’s office in consternation and says: “There were no results.” No real step forward has been made.
Rukwied is now also hoping for the budget deliberations this week. If the cuts are not reversed there, people will continue to protest. In Saxony, farmers have already announced new motorway blockades.