The farmers' protests are supposed to end on Monday – or were they just the beginning of something bigger? The solidarity of other sectors and the understanding of many citizens show that there is great general dissatisfaction. What lies ahead for us?
Munich – History can repeat itself, almost never comprehensively, but more often in facets. It is therefore not entirely unreasonable to feel reminded of autumn 2018 these days. Back then, Corona was still a beer brand and a war in Europe seemed virtually unthinkable. The pictures we saw from France were somewhat reminiscent of a battlefield.
Starting in November, hundreds of thousands of French people put on yellow safety vests and went out in frustration to protest. First they blocked streets and traffic circles, later this turned into riots and violence. It was an uprising of the lower middle class, great, dangerously pent-up anger was released for weeks. At the beginning there was a comparatively succinct trigger: Paris had increased taxes on fuel.
The farmers' protests have something of the force of the early yellow vest protests
Now Germany is not France, especially not when it comes to strike culture. And yet the local farmers' protests, which were sparked by the planned abolition of agricultural diesel and are scheduled to end with a large rally in Berlin on Monday, have something of the force of the early yellow vest protests. From the beginning, other sectors showed solidarity: restaurateurs, craftsmen, shipping companies. They actually couldn't care less about agricultural diesel. What unites them is the impression that politics is always placing new burdens on them.
“The protests showed that there is obviously a tension in the country that is very much directed against the elites up there,” said the sociologist Rolf Heinze recently Deutschlandfunk. The coalition with other sectors is something new. Heinze sees farmers as seismographs for the fears and conflicts that exist in the country.
There are a few metrics that fit this. According to the ZDF political barometer, 68 percent of Germans understand the protests, 52 percent reject cuts for farmers. At the same time, the government parties are in extremely bad shape. The SPD would have 13 percent, the Greens would have 14 percent, and the FDP would have four percent. The popularity ratings of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his ministers Robert Habeck and Christian Lindner are in the basement. Because so much comes together, the Bundestag SPD called the Chancellor to the meeting on Thursday. It took three hours, twice as long as planned. Behind closed doors, MP Dunja Kreiser is said to be loud Picture tearfully recounting the peasant anger that greeted her.
There are contacts, but the government doesn't really get through to the farmers. Instead, the competition is trying to lead the protests. Just on Friday, Prime Minister Markus Söder spoke at a rally in Nuremberg, Hubert Aiwanger hops around between the demos like a flying squirrel between trees.
The AfD also suddenly wants to be a farmers' party
Interesting: The AfD also suddenly wants to be a farmers' party and is trying to put itself at the forefront of the protest. With Corona it worked rather poorly for the farmers, despite great efforts. The party, which explicitly advocates the reduction of agricultural subsidies in its basic program, set up an “immediate program for our agriculture” at short notice. One of the demands: doubling the agricultural diesel refund.
The farmers' association has seen through the game and is criticizing, among other things, the party's anti-EU slogans – after all, the agricultural sector is heavily dependent on subsidies from Brussels. The attempts at appropriation by the AfD and other right-wing parties are strong and vary in their success regionally. But we are a long way from a big solidarity with the farmers.
Things were different with the French yellow vests. Populists on the right and left created a massive stir at the time, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the left and Marine Le Pen on the right benefiting. Despite the new quality, the sociologist Heinze does not see a yellow vest movement coming to Germany; the different protest culture in this country speaks against this. However, the farmers do not want to let up. In the Augsburg General Bavaria's farmers' president Günther Felßner warned of a “hot January”. (Marcus Mäckler)
#Farmers #streets #threatened #yellow #vest #protest
