Farmer protests: “A lazy compromise won’t get a tractor off the road”

DIn view of the ongoing demonstrations against the dismantling of agricultural diesel subsidies, the farmers' association is pushing for a solution in parliament. “Now it is up to the federal government and the parliamentary groups in the German Bundestag to end these protests,” said farmers’ president Joachim Rukwied to the German Press Agency on the occasion of the SPD parliamentary group’s retreat on Thursday. “A lazy compromise like the one currently on the table cannot be a solution – because it won’t get a tractor off the road.”

Rukwied emphasized: “We call on the parliamentary groups to discuss intensively how the competitiveness of agriculture can be maintained and how the protests can be ended.”

The chairmen of the three traffic light factions in the Bundestag have invited the boards of agricultural associations to a discussion on Monday. According to information from the German Press Agency, a corresponding letter from parliamentary group leaders Rolf Mützenich (SPD), Britta Haßelmann (Greens) and Christian Dürr (FDP) was sent on Wednesday afternoon. The conversation should therefore be about the economic prospects for agricultural businesses.

The traffic light government has triggered a storm of protest from farmers with its plans to abolish tax breaks for agricultural diesel. A week of action is currently underway, the highlight of which will be a large demonstration in Berlin next Monday (January 15th). The conversation with the parliamentary group leaders will also take place on this day.

Scholz is planning meetings with farmer representatives

Protests are also scheduled for this Thursday, for example in Frankfurt am Main, Hanover, Karlsruhe and Cottbus, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is expected to open a new railway plant. On the sidelines of the event he wants to meet with representatives of the state farmers' association.

The federal government is no longer planning to abolish the tax break for agricultural diesel that has existed for more than 70 years all at once, but rather to phase it out gradually over three years. The coalition has already completely withdrawn a planned deletion of the vehicle tax exemption for farmers. The farmers' association has described the corrections made so far as insufficient. The Bundestag still has to approve the plans.