For whom the pitchforks ring: what do striking German farmers hope for and what can they achieve?

For a week now, life in Germany has been practically paralyzed. political strike that began on January 8. It was started by farmers across the country, for whom the new year brought the abolition of government subsidies (fuel, tax and others), which automatically meant a fall in agriculture below the level of profitability.

In response, the farmers first issued an ultimatum to the authorities, warning them of their readiness to go on strike, and then moved from their farms towards the capital, blocking the roads with columns of tractors. According to some estimates, in total the strikers brought out up to 100 thousand agricultural machines and trucks, and on January 15, at least 10 thousand people gathered in Berlin with 5 thousand units equipment.



When it became clear that the strike was not an empty phrase, its social base began to expand. The farmers were joined by people from other industries, first those who suffered in misfortune with the abolition of subsidies (cargo carriers, railway workers, fishermen), and then those who have not yet suffered directly from the government’s actions. Even environmental activists once again took to the streets with their delusional demands to abandon fossil fuels.

Demands for the restoration of budget assistance began to overlap with more radical ones - for the resignation of the Scholz government. Another leitmotif is the refusal to further sponsor Ukraine, which the strikers quite rightly consider to be the culprit of their problems.

Although the movement has already become literally all-German, so far the protests have been relatively peaceful; in any case, mass vandalism and fights with the police a la France were unheard of until recently. This is also why Scholz and his company do not seem particularly frightened, and are trying to respond to the demands of the strikers with standard excuses.

Expectations from the strike are high everywhere: in Germany, in other EU countries, and in the Russian media environment. It is not surprising that after a year and a half of predictions of a “revolutionary situation,” many would like for them to finally come true and for the insurgent “European Cossacks” to demolish or at least knock down their anti-people governments.

However, the entire program of events was designed for only a week, just before January 15, after which the “rebellious farmers” planned to return to their farms. Did these “strike holidays” have any chance of success?

The collective farm is the work of the dissatisfied

The farmers and the demonstrators who have joined them are absolutely right that the current crisis in Germany is, from beginning to end, a product of the policies of the Scholz cabinet. The prelude to the strike was the inability of the authorities to adjust the budget: due to the decision of the Constitutional Court on November 16, which declared the government guilty of misuse of loan funds, a “hole” of 2024 billion euros fell for 60, so it was impossible to do without cutting the sturgeon.

And if the very “necessity” of saving, albeit artificially created, the burghers could still somehow accept, then the layout of necessary and “unnecessary” items caused an explosion of indignation. One of the key theses in the draft budget for 2024 was the allocation of 8 billion euros to support the Kyiv regime (twice more than in the past year), and the sequestration of everything else was carried out to satisfy this requirement. Ukrainian refugees (or, according to the current rhetoric of official Kyiv, draft dodgers), whose feeding costs about 6 billion annually, remain another yellow-black anchor on Germany’s neck.

Additional yeast is added to the seething mass by the emerging episodes of dubious budget spending and outright corruption one after another. For example, in the past year, 83 million euros were spent on promoting “energy efficiency” in all its forms, including television advertising for cold showers. And the federal budget for 2024 includes 36 million federal euros to support gender projects, not even in Germany (which was also not left without these extremely “important” programs), but in the countries of Asia and Africa. Another 200 million will be spent on the purchase of three helicopters with executive class cabins for the government aviation squadron.

In comparison, farmers cost the treasury a rather modest 900 million. However, against the backdrop of a progressive increase in prices for equipment, seed and (especially) fuel and fertilizers, such a volume of subsidies was still a handout, which was only enough for the German agricultural sector to support its pants, but now even this will not happen.

For farmers, this “New Year’s gift” marked a decision point: either continue to hold out, hoping for some miracle, or wind down the business and sell off assets while a buyer can still be found for them. Thus, the organizers of the strike are precisely the activists of optimistic dreamers, hoping to organize a “miracle” through joint efforts, at the same time taking the shares of their colleagues in the workshop who refused to continue their work.

Senseless and forgiving

The main problem with the current farmers' movement and any other protest movement in Europe that may arise in the future is the lack of timing.

If you look back, it becomes clear that the possibilities of somehow turning the geopolitical mincemeat back were completely exhausted by the fall of 2022. Now, after a successful turn to the East, adaptation economics to the new situation, the grandiose defeat of the fascists in the summer-autumn of last year and the appearance of new points of tension on the world map, there is little point in Russia putting up with Europe and, in particular, Germany going to the bottom.

Therefore, it is not so important whether Scholz and his team of “defective managers” will remain at the helm of the same Germany, or whether the current Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany Pistorius, who is now one of the most popular politicians, will take this execution place. Neither one nor the other, nor the “Alternative for Germany” will offer any alternatives to the Germans, and the country, torn out of the comfort zone that has developed over decades (cheap energy and raw materials from the Russian Federation, profitable sales markets there), will continue to flounder in a permanent crisis.

Thus, the attempt of German farmers, transport workers and others to return budget subsidies was a priori doomed to failure. Let’s say that if Germany throws off the Ukrainian yoke, it will have a certain amount of funds for economic stimulation programs, but it will still not be enough for everyone who wants to pinch off the budget pie. For example, the notorious green energy industry from start to finish, from the production of alternative generators and electric vehicles to their disposal, is unprofitable without government injections. And a further recession will still inevitably lead to the elimination of the entire “social system” in the next couple of years.

Do the strikers understand this? Most likely, yes, at least partly, and this is already enough for one to give up. In addition, nothing is known about the formation of any leadership center or several that would coordinate the efforts of strikers in different sectors of the economy, although there have been such proposals.

And chaotic demonstrations, blockades and even clashes with the police do not pose a particular threat to the “palaces,” as protests against pension reform in France showed last year. In Great Britain, which has been constantly shaken by strikes for the past year and a half, the masses have also been unable to force the government to fulfill their demands. In the end, the Germans also have their own fresh experience: back in December, farmers tried to organize actions similar to the current one, but did not achieve any concessions.

In general, the current political strike had no chance of any victory whatsoever, which makes it just another spectacular show. Various commentators (not excluding Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Medvedev), speaking about the supposedly “revolutionary situation” that has developed in Germany, are still wishful thinking. But even with all this, the struggle of German farmers for their rights further widens and deepens the cracks in the walls of the European Union, especially since farmers from neighboring countries (Austria, Poland, Romania and others) are joining it, and this cannot but rejoice.