German farmers to protest all of next week

German farmers are planning a week of protest action starting on Monday, 8 January.

This will be the second protest by German farmers in response to 2024 austerity measures to cut green diesel subsidies and tax breaks for agricultural vehicles.

The federal government announced in December plans to save €900m in farming subsidies after a court ruling cancelled €60bn in debt the government had anticipated receiving.

This cut also aims to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from German agriculture.

The previous tractor protest took place in Berlin on 18 December.

Farmers protested with placards at the Brandenburg Gate and parked tractors along a street in central Berlin.

Deutscher Bauernverband, the German Farmers’ Association (DBV), is primarily organising the protests.

Reuters reported that DBV president Joachim Rukwied said: "From 8 January we will be present everywhere in a way that the country has never experienced before. We will not accept this.”

Die Pläne der #Bundesregierung, den #Agrardiesel und die #KfzSteuerbefreiung zu streichen, müssen vom Tisch. Um dies zu bekräftigen, starten wir am 8. Januar in eine Aktionswoche. Klar ist: Angemeldete Demos und Aktionen: Ja! Sinnlose Blockaden und radikale Aktionen: Nein!????????? pic.twitter.com/mb8vjxKq26

— Deutscher Bauernverband e.V. (@Bauern_Verband) December 22, 2023

DBV is the country’s largest farming association. It is the umbrella organisation of 18 regional farming associations in Germany.

Germany currently has a coalition government, with the Social Democrats, Free Democrats and Green Party sharing power.

The protests are likely to be divisive in government, with the Green Party’s agriculture minister joining the previous protest on 18 December.

Letter

A new year’s letter from the DBV president posted on the organisation’s website outlined the reasons for the week of protest action.

Rukwied said in the past two years the coalition government had not made the progress it promised.

The letter (translated to English) said: “The federal government is simply stumbling from one crisis to the next. At the end of 2023, this collection of crises reached its temporary peak in the budget crisis.

“The proposal to remove the agricultural diesel refund and the tax exemption for agricultural and forestry vehicles is completely unacceptable.

“Especially in times that are already extremely challenging, this would be an unreasonable burden for us farming families.”