Farmers blocked a party event with Green Party leader Ricarda Lang in Magdeburg. “Politics is not moving,” criticizes one of the organizers.
Angry farmers once again disrupted a Green party event at the weekend. In Magdeburg on Saturday, around 200 demonstrators with around 90 tractors blocked the main road in front of the “StadtOase” in the Buckau district, where members of the Green Party had gathered – including co-party leader Ricarda Lang. Tires and barrels were set on fire and eggs were thrown.
Martin Dippe, President of the Farmers’ Association of Saxony-Anhalt and one of the organizers of the protest, weighed it down in an interview with t-online: “It was never dangerous.” Because of the blockade, Lang was only able to leave the area after around 45 minutes after the event. However, according to Dippe, the situation did not escalate. You can read more about the incident here.
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“But the frustration among some farmers is very great because politics is not moving,” he explains the protests. Party leader Lang confronted the protesters when they arrived. Dippe and representatives of the farmers’ association, the “Land Creates Connection” (LSV) movement and the Free Farmers presented her with a catalog of farmers’ demands. This includes, among other things, state subsidies for agricultural diesel, the abolition of legally stipulated set-aside and the CO2 tax.
“Some participants then vented their frustration”
“Actually, our demands were supposed to be discussed with Ms. Lang after the event, but she didn’t take any more time for that,” Dippe tells t-online. When Lange arrived in Magdeburg there was only a few minutes for a conversation. “That’s why some participants in the protests vented their frustration,” says Dippe, explaining the blockade with burning tires. “But I don’t want to justify the behavior.”
Dippe says he doesn’t know who set the tires on fire. However, there were also people among the protesting farmers “who we didn’t want to be there,” said the President of the Farmers’ Association of Saxony-Anhalt. “Some of the banners went in a right-wing radical direction,” says Dippe. “We have expelled these people from the rally.”
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Arranged a meeting with Lang
The Free Farmers group announced on Sunday that it had received “the assurance of a meeting” from Lang. This is scheduled to take place at the beginning of April and was offered by the Green Party leader after the event itself. We are already in contact with the politician’s office about the conversation. “Now we’re trying to get this from both sides so that it’s not a non-binding chat, but rather we can get things done,” said a spokesman for the Free Farmers.
