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An attempt by protesting farmers to stop the German vice-chancellor disembarking from a ferry after a holiday on a North Sea island has sent shockwaves through the country’s political class.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the incident as “disgraceful”, saying it “violated all the rules of democratic coexistence”.
“We all support a lively protest culture: but no one can accept such a radicalisation of political conventions,” his spokesperson said on the social media platform X.
Deputy chancellor and economy minister Robert Habeck was on his way back from the island of Hooge on Thursday night when he faced a group of about 250-300 farmers at Schlüttsiel harbour, near the border with Denmark. They had gathered to protest against a recent government decision to slash agricultural subsidies.
Up to 30 of the protesters tried to board the ferry, but were held back by police using pepper spray.
Habeck on Friday said he regretted not being able to speak to the farmers. “What I’m really worried about is how heated up the atmosphere in the country is becoming,” he added. “The right to protest in Germany is a precious asset. Coercion and violence destroy this asset.”
The demonstration alarmed Germany’s political establishment, with many MPs expressing shock at the protesters’ militancy and aggression.
Sociologists said it was further evidence of the increasing radicalisation of German society, a result of successive crises ranging from the Covid-19 pandemic to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“The harassment of minister Robert Habeck, and in a private context too, is unfortunately a further low point in the democratic culture of our country,” said Yvonne Magwas, a senior MP for the opposition Christian Democrats.
The farmers’ protests was particularly surprising because it came hours after the government agreed substantial concessions on the issue of agricultural subsidies.
The government had made the cuts after a bombshell ruling by the German constitutional court in mid-November opened up a massive hole in the country’s public finances.
Ministers were forced to make savings of some €17bn in this year’s budget. As part of a package of measures they cut an exemption from car tax for farming vehicles and removed tax breaks for diesel fuel used in agriculture.
Farmers’ organisations staged loud protests and parked dozens of tractors by the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, triggering a government U-turn on Thursday.
But the German Farmers’ Association said the concessions — restoring the car tax exemption and staggering the reduction in diesel tax breaks — did not go far enough. It has demanded both proposals be scrapped completely and have announced a week of protests starting Monday.
Still, the association’s president, Joachim Rukwied, distanced himself from the incident at the ferry terminal. “Blockades of this kind are a no-go,” he said in a statement. “We are a group that upholds democratic conventions. Personal attacks, insults, threats, coercion or violence are simply not on.”
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