Image: (APA/AFP/JOHN MACDOUGALL)
Police and authorities expect severe traffic disruptions. Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner criticized the protest plans. The opposition Union parties CD/CSU, on the other hand, support the farmers.
The German federal authorities also fear radicalization and infiltration of the protests. The farmers’ association, for its part, called on the participants to exercise moderation. The association appealed on Saturday on the platform X, formerly Twitter, that there should be no actions in front of the private homes of interlocutors or personal hostilities.
It also said: “We firmly reject demo symbols such as gallows, black flags or other symbols of extremist groups!” One should distance oneself sharply from people who propagated fantasies of subversion or glorified violence. This also applies to right-wing extremist circles and other radical fringe groups – “also because some of them want to appropriate our protest for their base concerns.”
Blockades on highways
Police authorities nationwide expect road blockages and other actions with tractors and other agricultural equipment. The Ministry of Economic Affairs of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania expects problems “on most motorway entrances”. The East German state therefore suspended the Sunday driving ban for long-distance drivers. “To ensure supplies for the population,” the authorities allowed the long-distance transport of goods on Sundays as an exception.
The police union in Bavaria fears that the police will be overloaded and criticized the farmers. “Many actions not only go far beyond the legal point of view, they also pose a traffic hazard as well as a threat to public safety and order,” explained police unionist Thorsten Grimm.
Anger over reduced subsidies
The German Farmers’ Association (DBV) had called for a week of nationwide protests against the federal government’s policies. Farmers’ anger was sparked by planned cuts in subsidies for the industry in the wake of the budget crisis. In view of the protests that have been going on since December, the German traffic light government made up of the Social Democrats (SPD), Liberals (FDP) and the Greens has now largely withdrawn the plans. The DBV still stuck to its plans.
After the blockade of the ferry by Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, German Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner appealed to farmers to remain peaceful during protests. “Don’t allow yourself to be infiltrated and exploited. You have lost your way, please turn back,” said the finance minister on Saturday at the Epiphany meeting of the Liberals in Stuttgart. Protest must be proportionate and within the framework of the democratic order.
“These are cases for the prosecutor”
The dangerous situation in which Economics Minister Habeck (Greens) was brought was “completely unacceptable”. “The damage to property, including the announced blockades, are disproportionate,” said Lindner, referring to past protests and those announced for the coming week. As usual, there can only be one consequence here: “Breach of the peace, coercion, damage to property – these are cases for the public prosecutor.”
- Also read: Angry farmers prevent Robert Habeck from leaving a ferry
Lindner defended the planned subsidy cuts. “Especially an industry that is so heavily subsidized at European and national level will not be able to avoid every contribution to consolidation.” One cannot, on the one hand, want to benefit from the now reduced electricity tax and demand additional funding for stable conversions and, on the other hand, stick to old subsidies. “If you want new subsidies, you also have to forego old ones,” emphasized Lindner.
Cuts largely reversed
The opposition conservative Union parties support farmers’ adherence to planned protests next week, even though the federal government has largely reversed the planned cuts in the agricultural sector. CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt criticized the blockade of Economics Minister Habeck’s ferry by protesting farmers. But he understands the farmers’ protests.
At the beginning of the closed meeting of the CSU regional group in the Seeon monastery in Upper Bavaria, he described the Habeck incident as an “impossible” derailment “that should not take place like this.” Protesting farmers blocked a ferry pier at the North Sea port of Schlüttsiel with their tractors on Thursday afternoon and prevented the economics minister from leaving the ferry. The protest action caused widespread criticism in politics.
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