Strasse des 17 Juni is one of the busiest streets in Berlin, with a straight road connecting the Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column. But from January 8 to 15, this road was blocked by tractors and trucks, most sporting anti-government slogans. Farmers across Germany protested against the German coalition government’s removal of agricultural subsidies. The protest reached its climax on a chilly day in Berlin, which saw the participation of over 6,000 vehicles according to the Berlin Police, that converged at the Brandenburg Gate.
The protest, organized by the German Farmers Association (DBV), took place all over Germany, with decentralized demonstrations in every German state, some even blocking arterial roads over the week. Small business owners, freight carriers, truck drivers, and other agriculture-related businesses joined the farmers in solidarity in Berlin, where demonstrator numbers crossed 30,000.
Point of contention
The central point of contention for the protesting farmers was the German government’s plan, in late December 2023, to cut certain agricultural subsidies. The cuts include subsidies on diesel use by farmers and tax breaks on farming vehicles. Following a similar protest in December, the German government plans to enforce diesel subsidy cuts in a staggered manner till 2026.
Tobias Werstermann, a pig farmer from Berlin’s neighbouring state, Brandenburg, camped in a shared trailer, on this busy Berlin thoroughfare with farmer colleagues from other states, despite temperatures falling to -8 degrees Celcius on many nights.
“The diesel subsidy has been extended till 2026, but the tax breaks on farming vehicles are still high. Even for small farms, that can cost us a lot of money,” said Mr. Werstermann.
‘Lazy compromise’
German Farmers Association (DBV) president Joachim Rukwied called for the withdrawal of the additional burdens on the farmers to ensure farmers withdrew their tractors from city roads.
In a video address on 13 January, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed the importance of agriculture for Germany but also noted that the sector must accept compromises.
Mr. Rukwied said that the industry was willing to talk. “The compromise offered by the Federal Government is not fair, but lazy. We don’t accept that,” he said.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, from the neoliberal Free Democratic Party, addressed the crowds at Brandenburg Gate to incessant booing and shouts of “Get lost!”, despite expressing solidarity with the farmers.
Mr. Rukwied had to interrupt Mr. Lindner’s speech at the start, to request the crowds to calm down.
Mr. Lindner spoke about the need for investment in security (referring to the Russia-Ukraine war), to tighten purse strings and hinted at prospects of higher taxes. He admitted that the subsidy cuts were asked of the farmers too quickly.
“The government cannot take on more debt. The current subsidy cuts would remain unchanged,” said Mr. Lindner ending his speech by saying he couldn’t promise more state aid from the federal budget.
2024 budget plans disrupted
The German government had to redo the 2024 budget plans because of a court decision. In mid-November, the German Constitutional Court ruled that reallocating unused debt (meant for emergency COVID-19 pandemic spending) was unlawful.
According to German fiscal policy, Germany has a debt-brake limit that can’t be larger than 0.35% of its annual GDP. During the pandemic, the then-German government (Christian Democrats, now the major opposition party) took on emergency debt to control the impact of the pandemic on its budget. The extra debt wasn’t eventually used. The current German government decided to reallocate it, to invest in its green finance policies. The Christian Democrats contested this reallocation, which was deemed unlawful by the German Constitutional Court.
This left a 17-billion-euro funding hole in the German government’s 2024 budget. The agricultural subsidy cuts are one way the German government is trying to plug that gap, which has led to the farmer protests.
Many small-holding farmers The Hindu spoke to, questioned the economic feasibility of their profession with these subsidy cuts. Another common sentiment that many farmers expressed was a fear of Germany having to rely on importing fresh produce and grocery items. For many, the fact that supermarkets decided on prices was an added pressure that forced farmers to increase their yield, which had already become challenging due to extreme weather conditions. On top of all this was dealing with the German bureaucracy, noted many farmers.
“In Germany, we must document every pesticide we use as farmers. We don’t know if these strict regulations are followed abroad,” said Mr. Werstermann. Many farmers also questioned the conditions under which food was produced in neighbouring EU countries where regulations were lax.
According to the European Union’s agriculture policy, farmers get a subsidy of 300 Euros per hectare. In the EU budget year 2022, a study by the German Economic Institute noted that almost 270,000 farms in Germany received around 6.9 billion euros. Diesel subsidies amount to 5% of all the subsidies German farmers get.
Prof. Hubertus Bardt of the German Economic Institute said there is a fear among the farmers that these subsidy cuts could just be the start of more cuts in the future. “Many farmers feel over-regulated by policymakers, which adds to the emotions,” said Mr. Bardt.
But he feels this level of agricultural protectionism doesn’t bode well for Germany’s export-oriented economy. “The European protection of its agricultural markets has often been an obstacle for free trade agreements and therefore has prevented the liberalisation of trade in other sectors. An open economy like Germany depends on open borders and would have benefited from further trade opportunities.”
Even as the ruling coalition figures a way out of this budgetary mess, those in the opposition are capitalising on these fears.
Far-right taking advantage
Every other tractor present sported a message against the ruling coalition of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats, popularly known as the traffic light coalition based on the colours associated with each party.
“Traffic = No Farmer, No Food, No Future”, “If the farmer is ruined, the food will be imported”, and “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”, were just a few of the slogans that one came across. Some even went so far as to call the current coalition government “complete idiots” and “incompetent”.
The approval ratings for the current German coalition are at their lowest thanks to the in-fighting among the three parties on many national issues. This is in lock-step with the rising popularity of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, especially in the three states that will go to polls in September 2024. Even in the farmer protests, right-wing slogans and posters were seen in some regions, leading to fears that the AfD was co-opting the protest.
“The AfD is an outsider party that wants to change the political system fundamentally. The idea of a popular uprising is central to their narrative as they head into an election year,” noted Prof. Kai Arzheimer, a political scientist from the University of Mainz.
On January 4, Robert Habeck, Germany’s Vice Chancellor and the Minister of Economy, was involved in a face-off with protesting farmers who blocked him from departing from his ferry. Later investigations by a German publication pointed to the involvement of right-wing forces as having engineered this protest.
DBV’s Rukwied distanced his organization from this kind of protest, calling it a no-go. “We are an association that defends democratic traditions. Personal attacks, insults, threats, coercion or violence are not on. No matter our discontent, we respect politicians’ rights to privacy,” said Mr. Rukwied.
Mr. Azrheimer agrees that all major farmer organizations have spoken out against attempts by far-right actors to associate themselves with the protests.
“The problem is that the farmer’s associations cannot control what happens on social media, where right-wing groups easily manipulate the coverage of the protests,” said Mr. Arzheimer.
Despite the palpable tension among the demonstrators, the protests were largely without incidents except for a few smoke bombs ignited, noted the Berlin Police.
For pig farmer Westermann, it wasn’t the outcome he hoped for.
“January and February, we can afford to protest as there isn’t much to do on the farm. I hope we reach some resolution soon. March onwards, it’s a busy time on farms, and I won’t be able to dedicate much time to protests,” said Mr. Werstermann.
According to Mr. Arzheimer, the protests aren’t just about the subsidy cuts. “It’s also about a general unhappiness with how the farming sector is changing, including the decline of small family farms and the government’s targets for a more sustainable way to produce food in Germany.
(Nimish Sawant is an independent journalist based in Berlin)
