Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir wants to withdraw at least one of the two planned financial burdens for farmers from the budget package. “We went overboard,” said the Green politician on ZDF’s “heute journal”.
Özdemir specifically mentioned the two resolutions that, on the one hand, the energy tax for tractor diesel should no longer be reimbursed to companies in the future and, on the other hand, agricultural and forestry vehicles should no longer be exempt from vehicle tax. “We are conducting these discussions with the aim of ensuring that this cannot happen,” said Özdemir, referring to the other members of the federal government. He himself is looking for ways in which the money to be saved can then be raised in other ways.
Silent against planned cuts
The SPD politician Manuela Schwesig also criticizes the federal government’s planned approach. “We need strong agriculture, also so that prices remain stable. The cuts for agriculture go too far and come too suddenly,” said the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to “Stern”. “A sensible solution has to be found.”
With outraged protests and a long column of tractors, thousands of farmers in Berlin took a stand against the planned end to tax breaks on Monday. The plans would burden the industry with an additional billion euros per year. Özdemir also finds it problematic that there is currently no alternative to diesel for farmers: “The heavy agricultural machinery cannot be refueled in any other way.”
The anger was triggered by savings plans in the agricultural sector for the 2024 federal budget, which became known after an agreement between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). The savings had become necessary in various areas of the budget because the Federal Constitutional Court had overturned several previous budget management practices.
