Berlin (AFP)
Farmers and environmentalists succeeded one another on the streets of Berlin on Friday and Saturday, a sign of tensions between a peasant world in crisis and a German public opinion ever more sensitive to environmental issues.
"Remember that agriculture feeds you", "ruined farmers, imported food", "You do nothing, but you know better than we do": the signs posted on the tractors on Friday illustrated the anger of the demonstrators.
In a tense atmosphere, this rally preceded that which gathered on Saturday at the Brandenburg Gate and in the center of Berlin some 27,000 people, according to the organizers, to demand a "change of the agricultural model", at the call of the ecological group "Wir haben es satt" (We're fed up!).
The two events are held on the occasion of the "Grüne Woche", 85th German agricultural fair, which has brought together farmers from all over the country since Friday.
"Wir haben es satt" calls for "reform of agricultural policy" in favor of "small farms", "soil protection", "biodiversity" and "animal welfare", said at the AFP Saskia Richartz, a spokesperson for the collective.
"These people have nothing to do with farming," said Mark, 22, a young farmer from northern Brandenburg.
- Insect protection -
The gap between farmers and environmentalists has widened in recent years in Germany, as climate mobilizations are pushing the government to act more in favor of the environment.
For several months, the farmers' collective "Landschaft Verbindung" has been demonstrating across the country against Berlin's environmental policy.
He particularly criticizes the restrictions on the use of fertilizers to fight against pollution of rivers, which must apply this year, and the "insect protection plan" announced in early September by the government of Angela Merkel.
The result of a compromise between the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, this program notably involves a ban on the use of glyphosate by 2023 and a ban, before 2021, on herbicides and insecticides in areas " ecologically vulnerable ".
According to the collective, these rules will "threaten German agricultural enterprises", which "will increase imports of foreign foodstuffs".
- Free trade treaty -
The new animal welfare regulations are also in the sights of the collective, while Berlin has announced its intention to ban certain practices, such as the grinding of chicks and the live castration of pigs "by 2021".
Environmentalists and farmers nevertheless have common struggles, such as the fight against the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur (South American common market), a strong point of the peasant protest, which is also a word of order of environmentalists.
"We are ready for dialogue with the farmers but we must have the same objective: ecological transition. Sometimes I have the impression that this is not the case", regrets the spokesperson for "Wir haben es satt" , Saskia Richartz.
The Conservative Minister for Agriculture, Julia Klöckner, for her part called for "building compromises" between "the city and the countryside".
Land use for agricultural purposes emits a total of 23% of the greenhouse gases produced by human activity, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is the main responsible for the disappearance of 80% of insects in less than 30 years in Europe, according to a German study of 2017.
© 2020 AFP