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Demo in Göttingen: farmers protest in front of the SPD headquarters and demand the resignation of the minister

2020-05-29T16:56:43.186Z


After Environment Minister Svenja Schulze blamed agriculture for the loss of biodiversity, farmers across the country are fighting back. There were also protests in Göttingen.


After Environment Minister Svenja Schulze blamed agriculture for the loss of biodiversity, farmers across the country are fighting back. There were also protests in Göttingen.

  • Interview by Environment Minister Schulze (SPD) causes anger among farmers
  • Farmers initiate demo in front of SPD headquarters in Göttingen
  • A member of parliament also spoke

Göttingen - The blow was deep for many farmers when Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) recently gave  agriculture the sole blame for the loss of biodiversity in an interview. 

Statements from the SPD minister ensure a farmers' demonstration in Göttingen

Too much fertilizer and pesticides would be used on the meadows and pastures, and intensive meadow mowing would also have a negative impact, Schulze said on television.

The statements of the SPD minister angered so many farmers that they took to the streets on Thursday - and brought their smugglers with them. A nationwide demonstration by the farmers' organization “Land creates connection” (LSV) took place in many cities , including in Göttingen .

Demo in Göttingen: Farmers deliver letters to the SPD headquarters

There were 50 farmers with 15 tractors in front of the SPD headquarters in Nicolaistrasse in Göttingen to submit a protest letter against the minister and to use the demo to resign.

The letter states, among other things, that farmers are no longer willing to accept permanent bashing from the Ministry of the Environment .

An entire industry was deliberately defamed and hit against the wall by unsuspecting sections of the population suggesting that intensive agriculture was responsible for the allegedly immense decline in biodiversity, the letter said.

Farmers demo: farmers demonstrate diversity in front of SPD headquarters in Göttingen

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Jens Röttger from Lagershausen.

© Christian Mühlhausen

No one could accept the protest letter from the farmers at the SPD headquarters in Göttingen . Instead, the farmers left a series of buckets and planters during their demo to show the comrades how diverse agriculture is. "We can not only do feed and food, we can also do biodiversity," said farmer Arne Röttger from Lagershausen (Northeim ), who placed a flowerpot with wild herbs on the front steps: "Ms. Schulze only blames agriculture for the decline in biodiversity and makes us a scapegoat."

Demonstration in front of the SPD headquarters: Farmers from the Göttingen area express themselves

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Jörn Hesse from Ossenfeld.

© Christian Mühlhausen

"It must be concluded that the minister spreads such lies at the expense of the entire profession," says farmer Jörn Hesse from Ossenfeld near Göttingen .

Instead of polemics, more facts are needed in politics. Instead of gut instinct and non-governmental organizations like Nabu and BUND, politicians and government officials should look like

Federal Environment Minister Schulze (SPD)

better be guided by science and truth.

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Thomas Obermann from Bördel.

© Christian Mühlhausen

His colleague Thomas Obermann from Bördel near Göttingen has a similar view: “We work with nature. For generations we farmers have been designing and maintaining our diverse cultural landscape, which has only brought about this biodiversity. "

A minister should not be so excited about the carts of environmental associations with her self-appointed experts, said Obermann during the demo .

Farmers demo in front of SPD headquarters in Göttingen: Minister Schulze is "no longer sustainable"

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Ulrich Jerebic from Langenholtensen.

© Christian Mühlhausen

Sauer also showed up at the demo Ulrich Jerebic from Langenholtensen (Northeim), who demanded the resignation of Schulze (SPD) : "This is not the minister's first faux pas, a lot of china has been broken, the common basis for discussion is no longer there, which is why Minister Schulze is no longer sustainable. "

Schulze's permanent defamation of the farmers upset him. It must clear the way for a new dialogue with the farmers.

For Heike Raulf, dairy farmer from Düna (near Göttingen ), too , the measure is full: "We as farmers - the industry that provides the population with basic food and feed - are only pilloried." Luxury goods such as automobiles and air travel , however, remained completely unmentioned.

After the demo in Göttingen, SPD MP Oppermann campaigns for dialogue

Member of the Bundestag Thomas Oppermann reacted to the farmers' demonstration in front of the SPD headquarters in Göttingen on Thursday : “We have a highly productive agriculture that reliably supplies us with food. At the same time, we are experiencing destructive climate change, dramatic insect death, a decline in biodiversity and pollution of drinking water. "

From Oppermann's point of view, agriculture can not be held solely responsible for these problems , but "they must be solved in a dialogue with agriculture," the MP demands.

After farmers' demonstration in Göttingen: SPD MP calls for "reasonable solutions"

SPD MP Thomas Oppermann says he knows the interests of farmers in southern Lower Saxony, many of whom took part in the demo in Göttingen :

"In the past few months, I have campaigned for an animal welfare practice in piglet castration and have entered into a dialogue with the dairy farmers."

Oppermann says that it is also in good contact with the rural people. "We need sensible solutions that take account of the interests of environmental protection and agriculture alike."

By Christian Mühlhausen and Bernd Schlegel

Not only in Göttingen: A farmers' demonstration against agricultural policy * paralyzed traffic at the beginning of the year.

In the past there was also a farmers demonstration * in Kassel: farmers demonstrated against the billion farmers and agricultural policy.

* hna.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-05-29

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