'The last straw' for farmers in the EU: 'Work isn't appreciated, no prospects for family farms'
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00:00 Yeah, neighboring Germany, where a week ago tractors rolled into the capital to demand
00:04 that those fuel subsidies stay on the books.
00:07 Well, for more, let's go to Berlin.
00:09 And Sandra Wieser, a member of the German parliament from the Liberal FDP party, which
00:15 is in coalition with the government.
00:17 Thank you for being with us here on France 24.
00:19 With pleasure.
00:21 Before we talk about Germany, your reaction to what you're seeing happening across the
00:24 Rhine here in France?
00:26 Well, actually, what I see is that is a kind of solidarization with the German farmers.
00:34 And that could be maybe even a movement all across Europe.
00:38 Yeah, all across Europe, because we've seen the protests are a little bit different from
00:43 country to country in places like Romania, Poland.
00:48 What's the common thread?
00:50 I think that let's say the discussions we have for the moment is that really, as they
00:56 say, it's the last straw that breaks the camel's back.
01:01 So they have so much bureaucracy, overburdening rules, subsidies, more than 52 percent of
01:09 the income of the farmers are subsidies.
01:12 So this is not really a very, let's say, healthy basis to do a business.
01:19 And I think now it's going in a way that the people, or the farmers, they don't really
01:23 understand why their work is not appreciated, why they don't have perspectives for their
01:31 farms.
01:32 They are asking me why I should tell my children to get over the farmer in the future.
01:38 There are no perspectives for us in this kind of business.
01:43 And all this is, I think, the basis of the protests, which is now for the moment the
01:48 tax rises, the point which, let's say, starts this discussion or this farmers' movement.
01:59 But at the end, I think really the big question, why don't they get the money they need for
02:05 the food they are producing?
02:07 And does the problem lie with other nations undercutting them, or is the problem more
02:13 with distributors, the big grocery chains?
02:17 Yeah, I think it's more a discussion with the, as you say, with the, how do you say,
02:24 distribution level, because the farmers, they cannot really, let's say, tell what they need
02:33 as a price.
02:34 They are dictated by the big stores, and so on, what money they get for the litter of
02:43 milk, and so on.
02:44 And I think this is the big problem they have, and that makes them a little bit desperate
02:49 also.
02:50 The German chancellor attending the big Ag Fair taking place in Berlin this Monday, he
02:55 promised that the government will help them to cut down on red tape.
03:00 We've heard the same noises here in France from the government as it reworks that farm
03:04 bill.
03:05 How do you cut down on the red tape?
03:07 What red tape are we talking about here?
03:10 What I think is that we have to really have a look at the big shell, and we have to sum
03:14 up where are the burdens, which are the biggest points, and to draw down bureaucracy.
03:20 It doesn't cost anything to the state.
03:23 So I understand we have in Germany, due to a ruling decision from the court, fined 17
03:32 billion euros to get this gap in our budget done.
03:38 But at the end, you can also get some money, or let's say reduce the burdens for the farmers.
03:46 And then if they have a perspective, when we are talking about, for example, new breeding
03:51 methods to make it easier to get these new breeding methods underway, to have a planified
03:58 usage of pesticides, or if you use more land instead of set aside land, then I think there
04:07 are, there would be some good points to start to get it easier for the farmers.
04:12 Yeah.
04:13 So this is where perhaps it turns into kind of a culture war, right?
04:16 Because environmentalists are worried that if you talk about cutting down red tape, what
04:22 you're actually saying in translation is cutting down environmental norms at a time when we're
04:29 trying to make it, the food that we grow healthier.
04:34 No, not really.
04:36 Because I think the new methods we have, they are not really bad or against the environment.
04:43 But I think that we have to stop really to forbid everything that farmers help to overcome
04:54 the problems they have.
04:56 And maybe it will take a little bit more time, but we should have a closer look at all the
05:01 burdens they have.
05:03 We've seen here in France the leader of the National Rally Party of Marine Le Pen, he's
05:09 been visiting farms in the Southwest where the protests have been the biggest.
05:15 There's this feeling that the far right is latched onto these protests.
05:20 Why is that and what's the answer to it?
05:25 The answer is, first of all, to talk together and really to have an open ear to the problems.
05:31 If there is only more and more coming down from Brussels and they just say what to do,
05:38 I don't think that is the solution.
05:40 And then at the end, people and the consumers, they also have to be ready to pay more for
05:46 what they eat.
05:47 Because especially in Germany, I think it's a little bit different in France, but especially
05:51 in Germany, when you talk to the people, everybody is ready to pay more for good food.
05:57 But then when you're in the supermarket and you have a look at what the people are really
06:02 buying, it's not really, it's not a high price product.
06:08 So I think we have to be also a little bit more honest with ourselves as a consumer.
06:15 More honest as a consumer.
06:17 And we saw the leader of your party brave the boos of those farmers last Monday when
06:24 he said, no, we have to scrap this fuel subsidy.
06:27 Do you stand by that?
06:31 Actually, I think we cannot withdraw everything.
06:36 We already stopped the exemption for the so-called green plates that will mean that you don't
06:42 have to pay the engine tax on the agricultural vehicles.
06:47 And the second part was the subsidy on the fuel or diesel fuel.
06:54 And there he said that we cannot withdraw everything, but we will find other, let's
07:01 say, other methods or other things to reduce the burden.
07:06 So let's wait what he's working on.
07:09 I think it's better to make it with more quality than to find a quick solution, which at the
07:15 end maybe doesn't lead to the point where we want to go.
07:18 I want to thank you so much, Sandra Wiese, for being with us from Berlin.
07:24 From Brussels.
07:25 From Brussels.
07:26 Thank you for meeting.
07:27 Thank you.
07:28 Thank you.
07:29 Take care.
07:30 In Brussels.
07:31 Thank you for the correction.