boutsiders gathered to protest in Magdeburg on Saturday in advance of an internal party event with the federal Green Party leader Ricarda Lang. According to police, around 90 tractors and other vehicles had blocked the main road in the Buckau district by the time the event began in the late afternoon. It had to be closed to traffic, but trams continued to run, it was said.
Around 200 participants were there. They parked their machines around the venue and lit fires. After Lang's arrival there were shouts of “Boo!” and a concert of horns, and some also shouted “We're fed up!” Lang then sought to talk to some farmers, said a police spokeswoman.
Özdemir: Sitting together without yelling at each other
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) meanwhile called on farmers' associations to take stronger action against radical forces during protests. “Unfortunately, the protests are also being hijacked by people who have nothing to do with the issue,” Özdemir told the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” according to an advance report from Saturday. “We have to fight back, but the farmers’ organizations also have to help.”
In order to overcome the conflicts between agriculture and politics, Özdemir called for calm discussions. You have to sit down together again in a normal tone and solve the problems sensibly, “without shouting at each other”. Farmers and politicians alike must accept each other's arguments. There is currently particular controversy over the planned gradual reduction in subsidies for agricultural diesel.
There have recently been several violent protests against the Greens. Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) was welcomed in Nuremberg in mid-February with a loud whistle concert and chants of “Get out!” Lang was whistled at, insulted and prevented from leaving an event in Schorndorf near Stuttgart.
In Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, violent protesters prevented a Green Party event in the town hall on Ash Wednesday. Özdemir sharply criticized the fact that police and security officers were also attacked: “That is a breach of a taboo: because they are not protecting the Greens, but a functionary,” he said. Although he had a good conversation with farmer representatives in Biberach, “nobody is interested because of these pictures in front of the town hall.”
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