The farmers' protests act like a magnifying glass on the entire traffic light policy. Discontent is growing everywhere. The start of a winter of anger? Or will the traffic light stop beforehand? There are signs of both.
Munich – Robert Habeck's communication strategy in crises is now known. In an explanatory manner, the Green Economics Minister stands in front of the camera and tries to classify things – while also adding his political point of view. This time Habeck speaks out in a nine-minute video about the beginning farmers' protests. The message is roughly: It is their right for farmers to vent their anger, but the cuts in subsidies will not be reversed.
Germany in the grip of farmers' protests: anger against subsidy cuts
Habeck defends the new austerity package for the 2024 budget that the federal government had to put together after the Constitutional Court ruling. In the morning, the cabinet initiated preparatory work for a draft law. What is now planned is not only a tightening of citizens' benefits (no help for those who refuse to work for two months), but also the controversial subsidy cuts for farmers.
There is criticism from all sides. Farmers' Association President Joachim Rukwied makes it clear as a guest at the CSU winter retreat in Seeon Monastery: The subsidy cuts should be completely reversed, as they are too burdensome for farmers. “In the end that means dying in installments,” fears Rukwied. Clemens Fuest, President of the Munich Ifo Institute, expressed surprise that a comparatively small group was so badly affected by the relief package. “It’s a disproportionate burden,” says Fuest in Seeon.
The Union sides with the farmers and immediately begins to criticize the government as a whole. “The traffic lights have become the greatest social climate risk,” says CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt. “The frustration among the population, which is now being expressed through these farmers’ protests, must be clarified,” demands Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU).
Farmer protests: traffic lights are suffering from increasing pressure
The pressure for the traffic lights is immense. Especially since there is also unrest within our own ranks – and dissenters. Speaking to our newspapers, FDP vice-president Wolfgang Kubicki demands that the red pencil should be applied elsewhere. “Especially in development aid,” savings could be made, says Kubicki, and scoffs at “gender training for social workers in China,” which the federal government is co-financing. That sounds different than FDP leader Christian Lindner, who appealed to the farmers: “You have lost your way, please turn back.”
Several SPD Prime Ministers are also calling for the agricultural cuts to be completely reversed – including Manuela Schwesig (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Anke Rehlinger (Saarland) and Stephan Weil from Lower Saxony.
The farmers have achieved success with their protest; the agricultural cuts should actually go much further. However, Albrecht von Lucke, political scientist and editor of the “Blätter für deutsche und internationalpolitik”, warns against readjusting the traffic lights again. “If it now completely caves in due to the massive protests and takes everything back, it would open itself up to blackmail.” The farmers' association must consider whether it hasn't already gotten enough out of it. Because “if these farmers’ protests and the government’s caving in become a precedent, then there is a risk of further protests,” von Lucke tells our newspaper. “This could be the start of an angry winter or an angry spring.” The problem is that the traffic light does not act as a representation of the common good, but rather appears “as a hodgepodge of client interests,” says von Lucke.
At the same time, the demos are being infiltrated – including from the far right. “There are now right-wing radicals who are decidedly using farmers’ protests to agitate against Berlin and against democracy,” said von Lucke. According to the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, right-wing extremists use every emotional topic to penetrate into the middle of society. Rukwied assures: “We are politically independent.”
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