farmers are taking increasingly violent actions against the government’s green policy

Around thirty demonstrators prevented a ferry from docking on Thursday, on which the Minister of the Economy was. The anger of these German farmers illustrates the difficulties in reconciling environmental policy and agricultural policy and fuels the opposition’s electoral chances.

After his ferry was blocked on Thursday January 4, Robert Habeck, German Minister of the Economy, was finally able to reach dry land, but admits “let the atmosphere heat up in the country”. This new media action by German farmers originates from the questioning of their tax advantages on the purchase of fuel. However, the government is treating this issue with great caution. The end of subsidies on agricultural diesel is part of the green policy measures that Germany is trying to encourage today. Robert Habeck, Minister of the Economy and member of the Green party, is obviously in favor.

Faced with the anger of farmers which has been building for weeks, the government finally gave up on the same day to suddenly cut these tax advantages, while proposing to gradually eliminate them by 2026. Some of them therefore reacted firmly, almost violently. , as with Robert Habeck. They also directly attacked Olaf Sholz, during a field visit by the chancellor that same Thursday afternoon.

A week of mobilization in anticipation

Their increasingly determined actions are condemned by a large part of the political class and even by the main German agricultural union. However, he does not give up supporting the week of mobilization planned throughout next week on German territory.

The tension has been going on for weeks, everyone remembers the spectacular tractor parade in the streets of Berlin last December. Between 8,000 and 10,000 farmers were already up in arms, like this union representative, interviewed by a German public television channel: “This government has no respect for farmers, and for agriculture in general. However, it is we who make the earth live. We cannot be looked down upon like this!”

A point of convergence of this agricultural union with the German opposition. In the same procession, this conservative parliamentarian from the CSU, Michaela Kaniber, criticized this removal of tax advantages on agricultural fuel: “This means that food will become more expensive. And our big fear is that consumers will turn to cheap products from abroad. Consequence: the entire German agricultural sector risks weakening.”

Consequences of the European Green Deal

In the eyes of conservatives and a large part of farmers, the environment-agriculture equation is impossible without undermining the competitiveness of the sector. Divergences that we also find at the European level. This is one of the subjects that concerns the defenders of the ambitious Green Deal wanted by the German President of the Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen.

This Green Deal, the essential texts of which are sometimes considered too punitive. The conservative right and the far right oppose these measures. For these political movements, a few months before the European elections, this anger is today fertile ground on an electoral level. The Netherlands saw this last November with the emergence of the Farmer-Citizen Movement, which became compatible with Geert Wilders, the leader of the far-right movement.