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STRIKES

‘We don’t get enough money’: Furious farmers stage Germany-wide tractor blockades

Angry farmers opposed to government's plans to cut tax breaks for agriculture used tractors to block roads across Germany on Monday, kicking off a series of strikes that are set to plunge the country deeper into a winter of discontent.

Published: 8 January 2024 17:09 CET
Farmers from Hesse on Mainzer Straße in Weißbaden with their tractors on Monday.
Farmers from Hesse on Mainzer Straße in Weißbaden with their tractors on Monday. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Arne Dedert

In Berlin, dozens of tractors and lorries stationed in the city centre blasted their horns to signal their anger at the start of a planned week of action.

Workers in sectors across Germany, from metallurgy and transport to education, have turned to industrial action in recent weeks.

Wage negotiations have taken a bitter turn as Europe’s biggest economy struggles with weak growth and households contend with sharply increased prices.

Rail workers will be next to walk out on Wednesday, launching a three-day strike as unions seek a pay rise to compensate for months of painfully high inflation.

“We are exercising our basic right to inform society and the political class that Germany needs a competitive agricultural sector,” German Farmers Association (DBV) president Joachim Rukwied told Stern magazine.

EXPLAINED: Where are farmers blocking traffic around Germany?

“That’s the only way to ensure the supply of high-quality, homegrown food.”

Farmers began gathering on Sunday evening at the Brandenburg Gate landmark in the heart of the government quarter in Berlin.

The sector has been up in arms over government plans to withdraw certain tax breaks for agriculture this year.

“We simply don’t get enough money for what we produce, while we work 365 days a year,” Jenny Zerbin, 34, told AFP in Berlin.

A sign at a farmers' protest in Jemgum, Lower Saxony, on Monday.

A sign at a farmers’ protest in Jemgum, Lower Saxony, on Monday. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Lars Penning

Far-right warning

The farmers’ pleas have won support from the opposition conservatives – and also powerful figures within Scholz’s party.

But as some people at the demonstrations have brandished far-right symbols and slogans, fears have emerged that the far right could exploit the protest movement to drive political cleavages and stoke opposition to democracy.

“Coup fantasies are going around… Nationalist symbols are shown openly,” Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a video responding to Monday’s protest.

He warned the rallies risked being co-opted by the far right.

Around 30 agitated farmers tried to corner Habeck on a ferry on Thursday evening, preventing the minister and other passengers from disembarking.

The incident was widely condemned by government figures for the implicit threat of violence.

READ ALSO: Outrage as farmers try to storm ferry with Vice Chancellor aboard

DBV boss Rukwied on Monday distanced himself from the ferry protest, pinning the blame on fringe elements.

“I see no danger at all of our association being infiltrated (by the far right),” Rukwied said.

However, the protests are being backed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and signs in support of the party were displayed at the demonstration in Berlin, such as this sign calling for new elections which was tweeted by the party. 

The government was “driving the whole country to ruins”, the party said on X, formerly Twitter, highlighting the rising cost of living and higher taxes. 

Farm vehicles blocked the centres of cities including Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Bremen, with up to 2,000 tractors registered for each protest.

Outside cities, demonstrators targeted motorway access ramps, snarling traffic in a coordinated nationwide show of discontent.

Authorities in the rural northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania said all its autobahn ramps were impeded.

The protest also caused disruptions at Germany’s borders with France, Poland and the Czech Republic, causing traffic to back up at crossing points, according to local media and German police.

‘Pure anger’

Thousands of protestors had descended on Berlin to protest against the planned subsidy cuts in December, blocking roads and dumping manure on the street.

The rallies prompted the government to partially walk back the reductions on Thursday.

A discount on vehicle tax for agriculture would remain in place, while a diesel subsidy would be phased out over several years instead of being
abolished immediately, the government said.

The agriculture sector, however, said the move did not go far enough and urged Berlin to completely reverse the plans, which were announced after a shock court ruling forced the government to find savings in the budget for 2024.

“We simply can’t continue to do business like this. Agriculture is going to the wall,” said Sebastian Schuman, 34, who works in the sector.

By Sebastien ASH

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CLIMATE CRISIS

INTERVIEW: ‘Failed climate policies are fuelling far-right politics in Germany’

Alt-right political parties tend to oppose environmental protections, but is there a connection between their political success and climate policy failures? Author and thought-leader Sandrine Dixson-Declève explains why Germany may be having a ‘1930s moment’, and why the next elections are gravely important.

Published: 17 May 2024 15:24 CEST
INTERVIEW: 'Failed climate policies are fuelling far-right politics in Germany'

It’s understood that far-right and populist political parties tend to either downplay the realities of climate change, or block progressive policies that would try to mitigate its impacts. But the link between failed climate policies and the recent rise of populist parties is rarely addressed.

Speaking as a panellist at the Green Tech Festival in Berlin on Thursday, climate policy thought-leader Sandrine Dixson-Declève voiced concern that poor climate and economic policies are fuelling the popularity of far-right politics in Germany and across Europe. 

Co-president of the Club of Rome, Dixson-Declève works to promote policies that she believes would help secure a sustainable future for humanity. Such policies are laid out in the book Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity, that she co-authored.

The Local spoke with Sandrine Dixson-Declève about Germany’s climate policy failures, and why she thinks the upcoming European elections are of the utmost importance.

The shortcomings of Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ had serious political consequences

Having been a contributor and advisor to Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition), Dixson-Declève has followed German politics and environmental policy for years.

“I believe that one of the biggest mistakes was that we politicised energy policy in Germany from the outset,” she told The Local, adding, “Merkel actually accepted the big green push to pull out of nuclear, which actually created a big mess.”

Germany’s anti-nuclear energy movement dates back to the 19070s, and led to the foundation of the Green party. Under Merkel’s leadership, a plan was adopted to phase out nuclear power with the last three nuclear power plants taken offline in 2023.

But losing nuclear power as an energy source came with some serious consequences.

“The first big mess was the continued burning of coal,” Dixson-Declève explained. “The second big mess was Nord Stream 2, and that led to the invasion of Ukraine…because it gave Putin power.”

Still, she wouldn’t suggest that Germany try to revive its nuclear power now: “I believe that Germany needs to really think through the next steps.”

READ ALSO: ‘Nuclear power is a dead horse in Germany’: Scholz rejects reopening plants 

Protestors run past riot police

A wave of protestors break through police lines at Lützerath. Open pit coal mining in west Germany destroyed most of the Hambach Forest, as well as dozens of villages such as Lützerath. At both sites massive citizen protests were met with brutal police evictions. Photo by Paul Krantz.

Energy efficiency is the missing piece to Germany’s climate plans

How to build up renewable energy infrastructure is at the centre of most discourse around curbing fossil fuel use, but using the energy we have more efficiently arguably deserves more immediate attention.

“The other missing link, which no one talks about, is energy efficiency,” Dixson-Declève said. “Actually the best energy is the energy you don’t use. That is unsexy, and that is why energy efficiency hasn’t been taken up the way it should have been since 2010.”

While working on climate and energy plans in 2010, she says she came across a study that said Europe could wean itself off of Russian gas just by putting energy efficiency requirements in place for buildings.

In 2022 the European Commission finally began to take this idea seriously when Germany and Europe suddenly needed to replace Russian gas imports, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Another massive energy saver that has been politicised for all the wrong reasons in Germany is heat pumps.

According to Eurostat data, about half of all energy consumed in the EU is used for heating and cooling, and most of that energy comes from fossil fuels. Heat pumps are significantly more efficient than boilers and allow for greater use of renewable energy sources.

But when Economy Minister Robert Habeck led an effort to promote heat pumps by banning new fossil-powered heating systems, conservative and far-right parties jumped on the issue as if it were an attack on personal freedoms. 

“As environmentalists, we need to get better at translating the environmental narrative into something that resonates with people,” said Dixson-Declève. 

READ ALSO: Reader question – How do I install a heat pump in my German property?

A unified coalition government that is serious about climate protections might have better communicated to people that heat pumps would ultimately save them money: “They should have been enabled in a way that truly assisted people in getting the heat that they needed in an affordable way at the right time.”

‘I am very scared we are in a 1930s moment’

Whereas the coalition government has largely failed to communicate to voters how environmental policies will improve their lives and save them money, conservative and far-right parties have done extremely well at hijacking the narrative. 

The European People’s Party (EPP – the EU’s largest conservative party), for example, is particularly adept at using citizens’ economic concerns to block environmental policies.

Having analysed the EPP’s manifestos, Dixson-Declève notes that they acknowledge the need to mitigate climate change, but say that protections cannot cost. 

“I think the EPP has done a very good job both of putting in fear of the greens, [as if] they’re only going to think about green climate policies and not about social policies [whereas] we’re here to think about you.”

Sandrine Dixson-Declève with Earth for All

Sandrine Dixson-Declève holds up a copy of the book ‘Earth for All’ alongside two of the book’s co-authors. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Wolfgang Kumm

Germany’s far-right parties tend to use similar messaging to try and convince voters that they will better improve the lives of citizens than the current coalition parties have. 

READ ALSO: Why are the far-right AfD doing so well in German polls?

Nearly 100 years ago, the National Socialist (Nazi) party succeeded in drumming up major support along similar lines.

Speaking as a panellist at Berlin’s Green Tech Festival, when asked how she thought European politicians were doing on climate issues, Dixson-Declève described them as deer in the headlights, adding, “I am very scared we are in a 1930s moment”.

“I think that in the 1930s we didn’t see Hitler coming, we didn’t read the tea leaves,” she told The Local, adding that in the present moment, “people are suffering. When people suffer, they look to anything, any message that’s going to make them feel like that next leader is going to help them.” 

She also suggests that we can’t count on the youth vote to save us, citing Argentina and Portugal as two places where young voters have actually pushed politics to the right recently.

READ ALSO: A fight for the youth vote: Are German politicians social media savvy enough?

“This is a tipping moment politically, and if we’re not careful, it could explode in our faces,” said Dixson-Declève. “We need to get as many people to vote this year [as possible]. It’s an absolutely fundamental vote, alongside the United States, in order to make sure that we don’t slide to the right across Europe.”

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