Farmer protests with Markus Lanz: “Didn’t hear the bang”

Markus Lanz and his guests debate agricultural diesel and the federal government's lack of communication.

Hamburg – New year, new construction sites: Since the beginning of the week, farmers have been protesting against cuts in their highly subsidized industry. A topic of course also for and with Markus Lanz.

Anton Hofreiter from the Greens expressed a lot of understanding for the farmers' protests, not least blaming Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the farmers' discontent. Because the Chancellor is not showing any leadership strength and is letting the reins slip in a situation in which many problems are weighing on him, such as Vladimir Putin's alleged plan to attack other countries, although the question is what that has to do with the farmers' protests.

Anton Hofreiter with Markus Lanz: Like an outsider

In any case, Hofreiter did not act with Markus Lanz on ZDF like a member of a party that is involved in the government, but like an outsider. In the end, it was the decision of the three leaders – Scholz, Habeck, Lindner – who made the decisions, even the Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir was only briefly informed about the decisions. Of course, you can also avoid responsibility.

Once again, the problem seems to lie less with the specific decisions than with the government's communication, as journalist and economist Ursula Weidenfeld noted. The federal government did not sell the undoubtedly necessary cuts well: “It was not a fair decision.” This is what Weidenfeld said about the cuts in agricultural diesel. Other population groups would also have protested massively if their wages were cut by several percent. But why are the farmers protesting with such vehemence even though the prices for milk, meat and grain have risen by around half in recent years?

A third of the EU budget goes to agriculture

Agricultural economist Sebastian Lakner from the University of Rostock explained why he considers the farmers' current actions to be disproportionate. This is not least due to the enormous sums that flow to farmers from German and European subsidies. From the EU alone, including all tax savings options and other payments, that's a good 13 billion euros. Overall, well over a third of the entire EU budget goes to agriculture, and several billion more from the federal budget. An organic farmer receives around 220 euros per hectare, plus bonuses for individual cows, sheep and pigs. Depending on the structure of a farm, subsidies account for between 41 and 62 percent of income. It is clear that it is not easy to do without such subsidies. In the Mirror On Tuesday, a farmer aptly described this system and the difficulty of changing it: “It’s like a junkie whose substance is taken away.”

The fact that there is a lot of talk about transformation, environmentally friendly farms and species-appropriate husbandry in agriculture also makes it easier for farmers to call for support from the state. And on the other hand, even on the whole, we reject rather small cuts like those now made with agricultural diesel. But is that an excuse for what happened to Economics Minister Robert Habeck a few days ago? A protesting mob prevented Habeck, who was returning from vacation, from getting off a ferry. The rhetoric is becoming more aggressive, gallows were shown at the farmers' demonstrations and threats of unspecified consequences were made.

Only after repeated inquiries did the organic farmer Henrik Wendorff, who has also been the farmers' president in Brandenburg since 2019, manage to distance himself from such verbal excesses. On the other hand, statements like “The government didn’t hear the bang” or “They didn’t communicate with us” seemed extremely populist. Wendorff did not show any insight into the need for savings in this area either.

At the end of his broadcast, Markus Lanz brought up the topic of the hardening of positions that can be observed in more and more areas of the discourse. Being against it on principle is an attitude that has been increasing in the USA for years and is also becoming more and more evident in Germany. According to Lanz, unreal fears often spread, for example about manipulated elections, as well as real worries about wars or climate change. A bad mix that is increasingly eroding trust in democracy: “We must not allow extremists to hijack this uncertainty,” warned Robert Habeck in a video message at the beginning of the week. Hopefully it will be heard, by the farmers, but also by other groups in society. (Michael Meyns)