Germany: how to deal with the farmer protests?
With tractors blocking access to motorways, the VW plant in Emden and city centres, the farmer protests in Germany against the coalition government’s plans to cut subsidies are in full swing. The main bone of contention is cuts to agricultural diesel subsidies. Commentators discuss the tense situation and the involvement of far-right groups.
Berlin needs to come up with a constructive response
The Spectator sympathises with the farmers’ demands:
“Removing essential subsidies without consultation is not only pulling the rug out from under their feet but a breach of the democratic contract between the government and the electorate — the very thing the disruptive farmers stand accused of. ... If the German government can’t or won’t come up with a more constructive response to the protest than condemnation, it needs to be prepared for more desperate acts of protest from its farming communities. ... In the Netherlands, a similar lack of respect and care for the agricultural sector has led to repeated disruptive action by farmers.”
Come off it!
A considerable part of the agricultural sector is actually doing quite well, Der Tagesspiegel stresses:
“After decades of structural change, which has undoubtedly been painful in many areas, this is a very strong industry which also receives a lot more in the way of subsidies, grants and loans than other small and medium-sized business sectors. From Monday onwards, it won’t be old tractors trundling to the protest sites, but rather fast and expensive high-tech vehicles. ... It makes you want to shout: come off it. The traffic-light coalition, it has to be said, has done this. Now it’s the farmers’ turn.”
As divided as the US and France
The blockade of a ferry carrying German Economic Affairs Minister Robert Habeck went too far, says the Neue Zürcher Zeitung:
“The farmers’ action is heating up the debate climate in Germany in a way that is reminiscent of deeply divided America or even France. ... Habeck and the entire traffic-light coalition have certainly played their part in damaging the discourse: with their deafness, their ideological politics and their rhetorical arrogance. Never before has a German government been so unpopular, and it’s easy to see why. On this January evening in wet and dark Schlüttsiel, however, it was the demonstrators who gave the impression that all dialogue was pointless.”
We should seek to be self-sufficient
The farmers’ protests pose questions for us all, Berliner Zeitung points out:
“How much agriculture do we want, and what is it worth to us? ... If you only ever look at prices and the global market, you end up with cheap products produced in countries with much lower environmental standards and often under disgraceful social conditions. The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have also shown how quickly supply bottlenecks and hoarding arise when the usual supply chains from low-wage countries break down. This highlights how important it is to be self-sufficient. If at the end of the protests there is a discussion not just about farmers’ diesel subsidies, but also about the question of self-sufficiency, the protest will have been worthwhile.”
