SDP Chancellor Olaf Scholz found himself the subject of a lively farmers’ picket on Thursday afternoon as the embattled German premier cold-shouldered local agricultural organisations pressuring him to speak directly to protestors.
Security was heightened ahead of Scholz’s scheduled visit to Cottbus—in a region known to be a hotbed of agrarian discontent. A police cordon prevented direct confrontation between Scholz and the farmers as hundreds lined the streets to protest the hapless chancellor, who was there to launch a new railway components factory. Convoys of tractors attempted to encircle the northeastern German town.
Plans by the country’s green-left government to radically slash subsidies on diesel fuel for agricultural use have led to turmoil, with motorways and urban centres blocked off by angry farmers protesting what they see as a direct assault on their industry.
The German government is scrambling to plug a €60 billion euro hole in the nation’s finances exacerbated by the country’s top court ruling against plans to transfer COVID expenditure into the green transition.
Scholz did not address the demonstrators directly and reportedly cancelled a planned face-to-face meeting with them at the last minute. Nevertheless, he noted that Germany was living in “agitated times.”
In response, Brandenburg State Farmers President Henrik Wendorff declared: “I want to make it clear to him that there is no longer any scope to make further cuts. There will be more protests. The number of those who support us is increasing.”
Wendorff—who helped organise the picket against Scholz’s visit—described how the government had “no more room for manoeuvre” as agricultural groups across Germany refused any compromise on the issue of cuts.
Scholz faces tension not just within his coalition but his own party, as senior Social Democratic officials publicly urged the government to back down. Regional leaders have also spoken out against the government’s plans and there are concerns about dissent spreading to truck drivers.
Scholz is not the first senior German politician to be confronted during the recent demonstrations. When Green Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, seen as the architect of the diesel subsidy cuts, found himself cornered by farmers on a ferry, it prompted further baseless claims of the protests being manipulated by the far right.
Responding to tens of thousands of tractor drivers taking to the streets earlier this week, Scholz declared that his government would not budge on the planned Net Zero austerity. Farmers’ groups have vowed to escalate their demonstrations in response, which would coincide with industrial action by rail workers.
