Germany is also preparing for large-scale farmers’ protests (but over expensive diesel) | Abroad

Robert Habeck, the Vice Chancellor and German Minister of Economic Affairs, had probably imagined the end of the holiday differently. In Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s northernmost state, a group of a hundred angry farmers prevented a ferry with Habeck on board from docking on Thursday evening. Dozens of farmers were kept at a distance with pepper spray, the police reported.

German farmers are directing their anger at the German Federal Government’s intention to phase out subsidies for agricultural diesel. Habeck, the party colleague of the responsible agriculture minister Cem Özdemir, is the leader. For the current year, the subsidy must be reduced by 40 percent. In two years’ time, government support will be completely gone.

But German farmers’ organizations and agricultural interest groups want to maintain the tax cuts after 2026 in any case. They also protest against plans for a motor vehicle tax on tractors and other agricultural machinery. According to the lobby clubs, German farmers are saddled with costs that could amount to a total of 1 billion euros.

The incident with Habeck has caused national outrage in Germany, comparable to the anger over the action of Dutch farmers who went to their home last year to seek redress from outgoing nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal (VVD). “An attack on the private sphere,” says the faction of Habeck’s party The Greens. A government spokesperson calls the incident, in which thirty farmers tried to force their way to Habeck, ‘shameful’. Shortly before, the rioters had declined an invitation for a personal meeting with the minister.

The German Farmers’ Union (DBV), one of the interest groups that sits around the table with the government, also strongly condemns the action. “Personal attacks, insults, threats, coercion or violence are out of the question,” DBV leader Joachim Rukwied responded in a press statement a day after the incident. He calls blocking the ferry, which forced Habeck to turn back to the North Frisian island of Hooge, a ‘no-go’.

Major protests are expected throughout Germany next Monday. Dozens of demonstrations are planned in the state of Baden-Württemberg alone, such as highway blockades and so-called ‘tractor columns’. Berlin is also once again preparing for massive farmers’ protests. Last month, farmers took three thousand tractors to Brandenburg Gate to express their dissatisfaction. The police in Brandenburg are now also taking major traffic disruption into account.

While the government’s plans for nitrogen reduction in the Netherlands have sparked national protest actions in recent years, farmers in Germany have maintained a deafening silence, with the exception of a few solidarity actions at the border. In Germany, the Netherlands was particularly viewed with surprise. “I support the Dutch farmers, but I reject violence,” said Martin Halbig, a grain trader in the Bavarian village of Münnerstadt, following the burning hay bales on the highways last year.

Nitrogen hardly plays a role in the agricultural debate in Germany, despite the fact that strict rules apply to manure and nitrate in so-called ‘red areas’. These are areas, mainly in the northwest of Germany, where emission values ​​are higher than in the rest of the country. In response, many pig farmers in, for example, the state of Lower Saxony had to stop.

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