Cem Ozdemir warns of conditions like those found in the USA during farmer protests

BAgriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir (Green Party) warned of “conditions like those in the United States” if people in rural areas “control the wheels” in a politics increasingly dominated by city dwellers. He told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper on Wednesday. The goal should be to keep the country together in the middle and prevent people from “accusing each other of all the evil in the world” and stopping talking to each other. In light of the farmers' protests, there must be a fundamental debate on the role of agriculture. At a rally in Elwangen in the state of Baden-Württemberg, he also said, according to the German news agency, that he did not agree with the planned subsidy cuts for farmers. If he had been included as a competent minister, “decisions would not have been made in this way.”

In Ellwangen, Özdemir on Wednesday confronted protesting farmers who were demonstrating against the scheduled reduction in tax benefits for agricultural diesel as part of a week of protest called by the Farmers' Association. Meanwhile, the protests caused further traffic disruptions across the country. Farmers' Association president Joachim Rokoed appeared satisfied with the progress of the protests so far in the ZDF morning magazine. The farmers “received a lot of support from the population.”

Polls by Forsa and Yougov support this. In both polls, more than 70 percent of those surveyed expressed their understanding of the farmers' protests. Data were collected on the first two days (Forsa) and three days (Yougov) of the campaign week that began on Monday.

4000 tractors in Dresden

Rockweed said the federal government is able to end the demonstrations “by getting really close to us.” But the government's policy comes “from the Berlin bubble, and is often advised by people who have never worked before, and who have sweated it out.” “If the demands are not addressed in the large demonstration announced on Monday in Berlin, we reserve the right to take further steps,” Rockweed said.