Every day, there’s a flood of posts on X, in Telegram loops or on Facebook since January 8. The mobilization of farmers, train drivers and road hauliers in Germany is widely followed in conspiracy circles. The reason: a strong mobilization of the profession, at the call of the German Farmers’ Union (DBV), is planned until January 15, with slowdowns or blockages on traffic routes across the Rhine. They are protesting against reductions in tax benefits planned by Olaf Scholz’s government for their profession.
In December, the executive decided to reduce subsidies to the sector due to a call to order from constitutional judges regarding strict budgetary rules. Faced with protests, the government, which brings together Scholz’s social democrats, the Greens and the liberals, softened its plans for the agricultural sector last week.
The German far right, one of the most climate skeptics in Europe
He announced that the tax advantage granted on the quantities of diesel consumed would be phased out gradually until 2026 and not all at once. The advantage in terms of tax on vehicles for forestry and agriculture will also be maintained. Insufficient for farmers, who believe that this jeopardizes their future. So much for context. The AfD, the German far right, has jumped into the issue and is participating in the demonstrations. In the processions, symbols used by “Citizens of the Reich”, conspiracy theorists hostile to the democratic order, were also observed.
“The German extreme right has the particularity of being one of the most climate skeptics in Europe,” notes Jean-Yves Dormagen, professor of political science at the University of Montpellier and who participated in the note published by the Jean-Jaurès foundation in April 2023 on climate conspiracy narratives on X and their impact on opinion. The AfD is campaigning on these subjects, the party had already put up posters defending diesel in the country. With the mobilization of farmers, we are on a theme that the AfD uses to mobilize and win voters. »
Backlash against climate policies
It is a vision that we find in the posts of the complosphere on social networks, such as those of Silvano Trotta or the sovereignist Florian Philippot. In this mobilization of farmers, they see the fight against a “globalist elite”, which would use/exaggerate global warming to manipulate the crowds. Others sometimes associate climatescam (ecological scam) or references to the World Economic Forum, one of their targets.
The spectacular mobilization of farmers in their tractors, blocking the entrances to towns, forms “a powerful imagery, which lends itself well to conveying the narratives that these circles are working to disseminate”, notes Jean-Yves Dormagen. In its note, the Jean-Jaurès foundation showed that the backlash against climate policies was carried by communities which were originally anti-vaccines and also by sovereignists.
The embodiment of tradition
In these posts, the classic narrative patterns return, namely that climate policies are decided from above, in non-democratic spheres, in which the European Union is included – wrongly – and that these spheres have hidden projects , want to change people’s lives, based on false presuppositions, even invented for the most conspiratorial, with reference to global warming.
“In these spheres often closely linked to the extreme right of identity, farmers also embody a certain tradition, they are the defenders of true identity,” analyzes the political scientist. In this sense, a farmers’ revolt is magnificent, it is a kind of popular jacquerie of the deep people, of the real people. » And which leads to the “fantasy of a great international jacquerie against the elites, Brussels or Davos”, with the affirmation of a mobilization in other countries, like the blocking of the highways announced in France on January 9 (which did not take place).
“Increasingly divisive” issues
If we must take into account the digital bubble effect of these extreme positions spread on social networks, the question arises as to what consequences this type of disinformation has. This is what the Jean-Jaurès foundation wanted to measure, with the opinion research laboratory Cluster 17 and Opsci, an institute specializing in socio-digital analysis, in its note published in April. A new study is currently underway on Germany.
“What we see is that the issues linked to climate transition are becoming more and more divisive,” explains Jean-Yves Dormagen. And what is happening on social networks is not completely unrelated to deep trends in society, but not with the same level of radical expression. Today there is very strong resistance to these policies in European countries. » At the risk of weighing on the social acceptability of policies which must be put in place if we want to limit global warming to below 2 degrees.