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Economics Minister Robert Habeck
Photo: John MacDougall / AFP
According to Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), he wants to give farmers more influence on the prices of their products. »The main problem with agriculture is often that it cannot pass on its production costs. The market is not fair,” said Habeck on Wednesday at the “RND on Site” event in Leipzig. RND, the Germany editorial network, is the central editorial office of the newspapers of the Madsack publishing house, which owns over 50 regional newspapers, such as the “Leipziger Volkszeitung”.
"The prices are not set by the farmers, but by the purchasing hand and the intermediate processing, i.e. the slaughterhouses, the dairies or the large discounters." Habeck had promised reforms, but did not give any details, the message continued. which the RND disseminated.
In Germany and several other European countries, many farmers have recently demonstrated publicly. The trigger in Germany is the gradual reduction in tax refunds for agricultural diesel. In addition to this individual measure, the protests were about a variety of topics.
In Leipzig, Habeck also commented on the current economic outlook: the federal government only expects mini-growth of 0.2 percent for this year. The minister said at a craft fair in Leipzig that this was "dramatically bad" and announced that the federal government would significantly lower its economic forecast for this year.
Next week Habeck will present the annual economic report. In its autumn forecast, the government had assumed growth of 1.3 percent this year.
»Perfect Storm«
He highlights three points that are now forcing the country to change course: international developments that required more military spending, the loss of cheap natural gas from Russia and the changes in the important sales market of China. Taken together, these are ingredients for a “perfect storm,” says Habeck – so it can get very uncomfortable. “Now that the wind is really blowing across the country, it becomes clear what we have failed to address in the last few decades,” says Habeck: For example, he mentions the shortage of skilled workers, failures in infrastructure, too much bureaucracy and too much bureaucracy Dependence on China.
In the analysis, Habeck actually agrees with Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP): Germany's companies are at risk of no longer being internationally competitive because of high tax burdens or energy costs compared to international standards.
But the countermeasures are controversial. Habeck would ideally like to reform the debt brake - but the FDP doesn't want to go along with that. Habeck's plan to set up a billion-dollar debt-financed special fund to relieve companies, for example through easier depreciation rules and to stimulate the economy, is also highly controversial. Habeck said in Leipzig: He believes it is the moment when everyone has to leave their "favorite places" - especially since a planned growth package in the mediation process with the states is much smaller than actually planned.
mamk/Reuters/dpa-AFX