Opinion
Farmers protest against Habeck
The quiet ones have to get louder now. Everywhere!
Angry farmers welcome Robert Habeck (r.) in Schlüttsiel
© Screenshot/X@LarsWienand
The farmers’ protest against Robert Habeck has crossed a line. There can only be one answer to the publicly celebrated hatred of some: publicly celebrated unity of all others.
The second half of the year is going to be really tough. That was the unanimous political New Year’s message from the country’s editorialists at the beginning of the week. A new state parliament will be elected in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in the fall. Then the AfD is threatened with election victories. Then the Nazis celebrate. And the worst case scenario is that Democracy in danger.
Well, unfortunately the editorialists were too optimistic. The year wasn’t even five days old when things were already getting really intense.
Angry farmers blocked a ferry on which Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck was returning from vacation in the North Sea port of Schlüttsiel on Wednesday evening. They rejected an offer from the Green politician to talk. The ferry had to leave again. The mob celebrated with New Year’s Eve fireworks.
What began before Christmas as a farmers’ protest against canceled subsidies ended with a border crossing at the ferry pier. With a triumph of the hateful that cannot remain this way. If further proof was needed that the mood in certain milieus is tipping into the unacceptable – there you go, here it is.
This development endangers democratic discourse. It threatens coexistence and the way we argue about problems and their solutions in this country. There can only be one answer to the publicly celebrated hatred of some: publicly celebrated unity of all others.
Everyone has to start with themselves
The farmers’ association could start by canceling the planned protests. Only that would be a sufficient signal to make it clear to one’s own people: a limit has been crossed here and we do not accept that.
The centrist parties could start by not always assuming the worst intentions among themselves. Politics sometimes needs to come to a head, yes, no question about it. But you shouldn’t confuse exaggeration with: exaggeration, misleading, creating enemy images, bullshit.
The SPD and the Greens, the CDU and the CSU, the FDP and the minority of sensible people on the left – they all bear responsibility for ensuring that democratic culture is not destroyed in a crossfire from ideological trenches.
And because this text already sounds like it was preached from the editorial pulpit, it should not remain without self-criticism. There are moments in the collective experience of a society when everyone has to start with themselves. This is such a moment.
Journalism must also contribute to the defense of democracy. But far too often we remain stuck in descriptions where classification is required. Far too often we accept the nonsense claims made by politicians instead of refuting them with facts. And every now and then we sit back and relax when riots and riots serve our profit interests.
But anyone who declares themselves part of the fourth estate is not allowed to look at click numbers when the hut is on fire.
The prognosis looks bleak
The sociologist Steffen Mau recently impressively explained why society in this country is by no means divided. But that there are “trigger points”, such as a handful of thematic arenas in which the cultural battle is particularly fierce – and which those who benefit from polarization use to their advantage.
Regarding the farmers’ protests against Habeck, Mau now says: “Unworthy of a democracy and the result of verbal rearmament, agitation and enemy rhetoric. If we are not careful, such a rampant social conflict can hardly be recaptured.”
This is a bleak prognosis, but by no means an unlikely one.
In the port of Schlüttsiel, where the farmers’ mob blocked Habeck’s ferry, FDP parliamentary group deputy Gyde Jensen gave a remarkable interview to “Spiegel” a few days ago. In it she calls for more objectivity in the political debate. Jensen demands that the quiet ones have to become louder. She only referred this to her party, the FDP. But their message cuts across party lines.
The quiet ones have to get louder. Everywhere.