We are now a week into the great German farmers’ protest, and the main event is set for tomorrow in Berlin. 10,000 demonstrators are expected; the rally will begin at 11:30am. Speakers will include Johann Rukwied, President of the German Farmers’ Association, and also Finance Minister Christian Lindner. I doubt he will be well received.
Many ask about the significance of "traffic light." Via a somewhat recent convention, all German political parties have a colour. The Greens are green, naturally; the social democrats or SPD are red; the liberal FDP are yellow. (AfD are blue, and CDU/CSU are black, if you were wondering).
As all three are in the coalition government together, we have a red, yellow and green government – a traffic light, in other words. Thus the traffic light is a symbol for the coalition.
In Woody Allen's "Love and Death," set in Russia in the 1800s, Allen's character proposed that it should be the serfs who run government, because they're the only ones who know how to DO anything. The elites are about to get a hard reminder of a banal fact: everyone needs to eat, but only farmers have the knowhow to make it happen. These "serfs" may not be in charge, but we are all about to re-learn that they are IN CONTROL, and not just in Germany. This control should not be squandered after the tractors return to their places in the barns.
As someone who cannot read German, I appreciate your taking the time to provide translations of the signs. I am glad you are on the case and reporting from the scene. We have not seen any information from the media on this side of the pond.
My friend-from-fifth-grade [need to get that on autofill] doesn't have cable but DW is magically available to her (someone ought to do an examination of what channels are deemed worthy of being included in over-the-air free digital offerings and who does the deeming) and she considers herself well-informed on domestic and world affairs, and when I tell her about stuff she hasn't seen because they don't show it to her, she starts shrieking at me that "how do you know stuff nobody else knows? Do you go to the Dark Web? What sort of crazy stuff do you read?"
I don't understand the weird distortion of political 'left' and 'right' these days. Used to be the 'left' supported the workers having/owning the means of production. These farmers fit that bill quite nicely. Nowadays the 'left' does corporate bidding and cannot imagine a world without corporate/NGO ownership of all production and discourse and as long as their pet fetishes are celebrated, they will fight for them.
I posit that the terms are now distorted beyond all meaning and most 'leftists' don't know their arse from a hole in the ground.
On edit: I say this as an old-school type who still supports workers having a stake and share in production...
Thank you for the reporting and sign translation, much appreciated. I like the passion of the farmers, these are the salt of the earth types without whom our societies and cities would collapse into chaos and anarchy. Here in Canada as it is there in Germany, we don't need the government to tell us what do, we need them to get the hell out of the way of the growers, builders, and manufacturers.
I am SO encouraged by all this! The elites have finally gone too far, and it's good to see good people finally taking a hard stance.
May their courage find compatriots here in the US, and we fight back against our own oppression, as we're only a handful of years behind you in the Vaterland....
Interesting to compare with the Freedom Convoy - the fact that the "official" farmers association is on board makes the protest perhaps bigger, but also less radical.
Good logistics and giving out free food seem to be a feature of both - and will be more apparent if protesters remain in place.
Great signs and thanks for the translations, in particular, the last one. These protests, and others all over Europe, are the only way to defeat the totalitarians at the WEF, etc., from taking over and creating 1984/Animal Farm societies.
Thank you, eugyppius, for suffering some discomforts to serve as a real journalist. From your reporting, it's now clear that Scholz doesn't want to do a Trudeau on the farmers. But since the farmers pose a political threat to him, he has to do something.
It looks (to me) as if his best option would be to cultivate Rukwied and his associates as a pliable leadership among the farmers. He can give them the prestige of meetings with government committees, and grant them substantial concessions. Flattered, Rukwied will gladly agree to increase the strength and frequency of his denunciations of the AfD.
If this works, the farmers (at least in the eyes of the majority of the public that is uninvolved) will appear to be pitted against the AfD, which will clear the ground for a ban on the AfD. On the back of their "success" in wringing concessions from the government, Rukwied or others could be persuaded to create a kind of toothless substitute for the AfD that will serve to mute protest against the supression of the AfD. This would easily be enough to obtain Green support in compensation for dropping several of the Green policies the farmers oppose.
Things may play out differently, but if I, a political nobody, can conceive of this scenario, it must have been wargamed out by Scholz's advisors over the past week.
What a great best of posters, thanks for your hard work. It's just strange that this is now allowed and there are no charges of insult so far. There has been a lot of submarine traffic in this country for three years🤔
Many ask about the significance of "traffic light." Via a somewhat recent convention, all German political parties have a colour. The Greens are green, naturally; the social democrats or SPD are red; the liberal FDP are yellow. (AfD are blue, and CDU/CSU are black, if you were wondering).
As all three are in the coalition government together, we have a red, yellow and green government – a traffic light, in other words. Thus the traffic light is a symbol for the coalition.
In Woody Allen's "Love and Death," set in Russia in the 1800s, Allen's character proposed that it should be the serfs who run government, because they're the only ones who know how to DO anything. The elites are about to get a hard reminder of a banal fact: everyone needs to eat, but only farmers have the knowhow to make it happen. These "serfs" may not be in charge, but we are all about to re-learn that they are IN CONTROL, and not just in Germany. This control should not be squandered after the tractors return to their places in the barns.
As someone who cannot read German, I appreciate your taking the time to provide translations of the signs. I am glad you are on the case and reporting from the scene. We have not seen any information from the media on this side of the pond.
God bless the German farmers, the Freedom convoy and all normal, hardworking people willing to stand up to tyranny.
More more more of this.
Bring the corrupt climate cultists to their knees.
I love this:
“Political shit is not fertiliser!”
Oh, you Eugyppius you. Taking the part of those greedy farmers. Let DW school you:
https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-far-right-exploits-farmers-protests/a-67920952
My friend-from-fifth-grade [need to get that on autofill] doesn't have cable but DW is magically available to her (someone ought to do an examination of what channels are deemed worthy of being included in over-the-air free digital offerings and who does the deeming) and she considers herself well-informed on domestic and world affairs, and when I tell her about stuff she hasn't seen because they don't show it to her, she starts shrieking at me that "how do you know stuff nobody else knows? Do you go to the Dark Web? What sort of crazy stuff do you read?"
I don't understand the weird distortion of political 'left' and 'right' these days. Used to be the 'left' supported the workers having/owning the means of production. These farmers fit that bill quite nicely. Nowadays the 'left' does corporate bidding and cannot imagine a world without corporate/NGO ownership of all production and discourse and as long as their pet fetishes are celebrated, they will fight for them.
I posit that the terms are now distorted beyond all meaning and most 'leftists' don't know their arse from a hole in the ground.
On edit: I say this as an old-school type who still supports workers having a stake and share in production...
Thank you for the reporting and sign translation, much appreciated. I like the passion of the farmers, these are the salt of the earth types without whom our societies and cities would collapse into chaos and anarchy. Here in Canada as it is there in Germany, we don't need the government to tell us what do, we need them to get the hell out of the way of the growers, builders, and manufacturers.
Those signs...
And who says Germans aren't funny?
I am SO encouraged by all this! The elites have finally gone too far, and it's good to see good people finally taking a hard stance.
May their courage find compatriots here in the US, and we fight back against our own oppression, as we're only a handful of years behind you in the Vaterland....
Interesting to compare with the Freedom Convoy - the fact that the "official" farmers association is on board makes the protest perhaps bigger, but also less radical.
Good logistics and giving out free food seem to be a feature of both - and will be more apparent if protesters remain in place.
Great signs and thanks for the translations, in particular, the last one. These protests, and others all over Europe, are the only way to defeat the totalitarians at the WEF, etc., from taking over and creating 1984/Animal Farm societies.
Danny Huckabee
I’ll be looking forward to your report!
It looks like it’s going to be a great day to make a very profound statement.
Thank you, eugyppius, for suffering some discomforts to serve as a real journalist. From your reporting, it's now clear that Scholz doesn't want to do a Trudeau on the farmers. But since the farmers pose a political threat to him, he has to do something.
It looks (to me) as if his best option would be to cultivate Rukwied and his associates as a pliable leadership among the farmers. He can give them the prestige of meetings with government committees, and grant them substantial concessions. Flattered, Rukwied will gladly agree to increase the strength and frequency of his denunciations of the AfD.
If this works, the farmers (at least in the eyes of the majority of the public that is uninvolved) will appear to be pitted against the AfD, which will clear the ground for a ban on the AfD. On the back of their "success" in wringing concessions from the government, Rukwied or others could be persuaded to create a kind of toothless substitute for the AfD that will serve to mute protest against the supression of the AfD. This would easily be enough to obtain Green support in compensation for dropping several of the Green policies the farmers oppose.
Things may play out differently, but if I, a political nobody, can conceive of this scenario, it must have been wargamed out by Scholz's advisors over the past week.
What a great best of posters, thanks for your hard work. It's just strange that this is now allowed and there are no charges of insult so far. There has been a lot of submarine traffic in this country for three years🤔