Juno News - German farmers REVOLT against socialist government

00:00:00.000 Something truly historic is happening right now in Germany.

00:00:23.860 Tens of thousands of German farmers, truckers and citizens have taken to the streets,

00:00:28.480 blocked highways and shut down cities across the country

00:00:32.000 in protest of new statist climate restrictions, specifically targeting farmers.

00:00:38.480 Just like what we saw in the Netherlands last year with Dutch farmers, 1.00

00:00:42.000 the German people have been pushed to their breaking point

00:00:44.300 as socialist leaders in Western Europe seek to implement rather authoritarian climate measures

00:00:50.120 that specifically target truckers and farmers,

00:00:53.600 which are wildly unpopular, unaffordable and dangerous.

00:00:56.980 Where the Dutch government at the time wanted to force Dutch farmers

00:01:00.620 to limit nitrogen emissions coming from their farms

00:01:03.060 or face the government seizure of their land,

00:01:06.080 in Germany, the government has decided to cut tax subsidies

00:01:09.940 for farmers operating diesel tractors,

00:01:13.060 which, by the way, is basically every single German farmer.

00:01:16.320 All of these anti-farmer and anti-human policies being adopted in the West

00:01:20.300 are sold to the public as a way to combat climate change.

00:01:23.800 But what is really happening here?

00:01:25.300 Why is this sustained war on farmers happening in the first place?

00:01:29.620 Farmers feed the people.

00:01:31.160 They are probably the most important sector in any economy.

00:01:34.560 Now, German farmers are staring down the barrel

00:01:37.160 as many will likely end up having to go out of business,

00:01:39.940 which will result in a domestic food supply crisis,

00:01:43.820 which, of course, in turn will result in Germany having to rely on other countries to import food.

00:01:49.460 Attacking farmers almost always leads to famine and starvation.

00:01:54.900 And if you think the Germans right now are protesting just for themselves,

00:01:58.200 don't be mistaken.

00:01:59.480 There's a reason that Polish truckers right now 1.00

00:02:01.860 and Romanian farmers are protesting in their countries in support of German farmers.

00:02:06.940 That's because similar measures are being planned in other countries,

00:02:09.900 and they're being planned in Canada too.

00:02:11.700 But before we get into that, drop a like in the video,

00:02:14.000 help us out by subscribing to the TrueNorth YouTube channel.

00:02:16.980 And the comment question for the episode is this.

00:02:20.440 Why are Western countries targeting the farmers in order to achieve their climate targets?

00:02:25.920 Let me know your answer in the comments below, and let's get into it.

00:02:29.180 Yet another Canadian Freedom Convoy-inspired protest

00:02:33.100 is dominating the internet, dominating global headlines,

00:02:36.520 and giving far-left socialist governments major headaches.

00:02:41.120 Last year, it was the Dutch, and this year, it's now the Germans. 0.99

00:02:44.680 The Europeans saw Canadians successfully fight for their freedom in 2022

00:02:48.660 and said, hold my beer.

00:02:50.800 Take a look at the scenes out of Berlin today.

00:02:53.820 Hundreds of tractors outside the famous Brandenburg gates

00:02:56.820 shutting down the city.

00:02:58.680 Tens of thousands of Germans out in the street

00:03:01.920 protesting against these new climate measures on farmers.

00:03:05.080 Truly incredible scenes.

00:03:07.120 And by the way, this is happening, as you saw in the intro,

00:03:09.860 all over the country right now.

00:03:11.620 Now, for a better understanding of what is really happening on the ground,

00:03:15.420 here is what one German farmer had to say to Dutch journalist

00:03:18.820 Eva Vlardingerbroek while standing in the middle of Germany's busiest highway.

00:03:23.840 Take a listen.

00:03:24.680 But no, we are sick of lies.

00:03:27.680 We are sick of trying to get rid of our jobs.

00:03:31.140 It's not only farmers, it's the lower drivers.

00:03:34.400 It's the normal workers.

00:03:35.980 Everybody is sick of politicians who have no idea what they're talking about,

00:03:40.580 who have no education to tell us how our lifestyle should look like.

00:03:45.460 And this is the result of four years trying to get in contact with politicians,

00:03:51.460 talking to them on an equal level, but they won't listen.

00:03:54.940 And now we have no other choice than to demonstrate, and it's our right.

00:04:01.320 Yes.

00:04:01.840 It's one of the highest rights, especially in Germany.

00:04:04.460 Yeah.

00:04:04.900 Demonstrate we are not violent.

00:04:07.540 This is all friendly.

00:04:08.540 Germany, you can see we have a small gap that people can drive through, police, ambulances.

00:04:16.280 Everybody can come through.

00:04:17.960 But this is only the tip of the iceberg, to be honest, because all over Germany,

00:04:24.440 we have, this is the West, we have Dutch farmers coming over to support us in the East.

00:04:30.420 We have Hungarian farmers, Polish farmers, and we are all united in getting rid of politicians

00:04:40.660 who are trying to get rid of us.

00:04:42.440 And if you think that the Germans are upset that they're now stuck in traffic

00:04:45.500 due to these major nationwide farmers protests, think again.

00:04:49.760 Here's what one German had to say when asked by reporters

00:04:51.920 if he was upset that he's now stuck in traffic.

00:04:54.860 Translated from the reporter,

00:04:56.500 Since the traffic lights coalition came on, Germany has been going down the drain.

00:05:01.480 When politicians are so incompetent, you're scratching your head.

00:05:04.540 The equation here is so simple and so basic,

00:05:08.060 even Justin Trudeau and Olaf Scholz can understand it.

00:05:10.620 No farmers, no food.

00:05:13.240 If you force German farmers out of business by cutting their tax subsidies,

00:05:17.020 well, the Germans go hungry.

00:05:18.560 Now, before we get into the politics driving all of this anger and frustration

00:05:22.060 at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,

00:05:24.160 we first have to go into the details of what this measure against farmers is

00:05:28.280 and why it's happening right now.

00:05:30.600 Germany is currently led by a three-party coalition

00:05:32.940 with Olaf Scholz sitting at the top of the system as Chancellor,

00:05:36.360 representing the Socialist Party,

00:05:37.780 backed up by the Greens and the Liberal Free Democratic Party.

00:05:41.720 This coalition in Germany is known as the Traffic Light Coalition.

00:05:45.640 And in December, the German government proposed their sample 2024 budget.

00:05:50.660 In it, they tried to repurpose over 60 billion euros of pandemic emergency debt

00:05:56.540 in order to achieve their climate goals.

00:05:58.640 They were going to try to take pandemic spending

00:06:00.780 and repurpose that into achieving climate change targets.

00:06:04.880 The German Supreme Court struck that down as unconstitutional.

00:06:08.680 And in turn, the German government decided to do what it appears

00:06:12.000 several other European countries are now trying to do,

00:06:14.660 attack the farmers.

00:06:15.840 Their next decision in early December

00:06:17.480 was to completely remove the tax subsidy

00:06:20.580 on farmers operating diesel tractors.

00:06:24.100 Now, that is what has sparked major nationwide protests.

00:06:28.100 For weeks, German farmers have been protesting those new measures,

00:06:31.740 prompting last week the German government to scale down their restrictions

00:06:35.980 and instead to gradually phase out the subsidy elimination.

00:06:40.980 Instead of cutting the tax break for German farmers

00:06:43.460 who are already struggling immediately,

00:06:45.760 they have decided to cut it back by 40% this year,

00:06:49.160 30% the next year, and 30% by 2026.

00:06:52.980 So instead of an immediate killing of the industry,

00:06:55.680 they're going to do a death by a thousand cuts style.

00:06:58.080 They're not going to starve the German public immediately,

00:07:00.440 that it's going to gradually starve the German public.

00:07:03.280 But if the German government thought that their decision

00:07:05.300 to scale down their subsidy elimination program

00:07:07.780 was going to ease tensions in the country,

00:07:10.660 well, they would be mistaken,

00:07:11.860 because today, the protests only ramped up,

00:07:15.580 with plans for weeks of continuous protests throughout Germany.

00:07:19.760 Now, these protests in Germany almost mirror

00:07:21.940 exactly what we saw in the Netherlands last year.

00:07:24.820 In 2019, the Dutch Prime Minister at the time,

00:07:27.220 Mark Rutte fixed his sights on Dutch farmers

00:07:30.020 as a way to solve the so-called climate crisis.

00:07:33.500 The Dutch plan was to force Dutch farmers 1.00

00:07:36.200 to accept nitrogen emissions reduction targets

00:07:39.480 on their farms or face the government seizure of their farms.

00:07:44.140 That's right, if you didn't abide

00:07:45.780 by the Dutch government's authoritarian emissions reduction targets

00:07:49.220 on your farm, well, the government would just take it from you.

00:07:52.060 I'm pretty sure they tried that in China and the Soviet Union.

00:07:54.740 What came from that was major political upheaval in the Netherlands.

00:07:58.760 Protests for years dominated that country's political scene,

00:08:02.240 resulting last year in major political success

00:08:04.980 for farmers' political parties.

00:08:07.740 And it all culminated at the end of last year

00:08:09.700 with Dutch voters rejecting the WEF-backed Mark Rutte coalition

00:08:15.160 and instead voting in massive numbers

00:08:18.100 for populist Geert Wilders.

00:08:20.280 And the same situation appears to be happening in Germany right now.

00:08:23.840 According to German public broadcaster DW,

00:08:26.940 at the beginning of December,

00:08:28.720 Olaf Scholz hit record low popularity numbers.

00:08:32.760 Germany's ruling Social Democrats are in a bad way, according to DW.

00:08:36.980 The latest polling shows how turned off voters are

00:08:39.380 by the center-left and the man it chose to run the country.

00:08:42.780 If general elections were held now,

00:08:44.840 the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz would only receive 14% of the vote.

00:08:48.900 That is another 2% lower than last month's figures

00:08:52.040 and the lowest since June 2021.

00:08:54.940 And at the same time as Olaf Scholz is currently battling

00:08:57.560 record low popularity in the German polls,

00:09:00.360 the leader of his Socialist Party

00:09:02.460 is trying to ban the German Conservative Party,

00:09:06.500 the AFD, the alternative for Deutschland.

00:09:09.100 They're trying to ban a party

00:09:10.640 which is polling higher than their own party,

00:09:14.760 which is currently in charge.

00:09:15.960 Think about that for a minute.

00:09:16.960 If you wanted to maybe fan the flames in Germany 0.99

00:09:19.640 and really anger some people who are already quite upset with you,

00:09:23.700 how about you ban the party that they're trying to vote for?

00:09:26.120 According to this Reuters article from mid-December,

00:09:28.820 Germany's AFD hits record high in poll after budget chaos.

00:09:33.320 Support for Germany's far-right alternative for Germany

00:09:36.320 hit an all-time high of 23% in a poll on Tuesday

00:09:39.740 as the party continued to benefit from the fallout of a budget crisis.

00:09:43.820 According to DW, in current polls ahead of the 2024 state elections

00:09:48.200 in Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia,

00:09:51.120 the AFD is ahead everywhere with ratings of well over 30%.

00:09:55.840 Saskia Eskin, the leader of the SPD party,

00:09:59.100 the party that Olaf Scholz belongs to,

00:10:01.260 said according to Yahoo News,

00:10:03.020 it is important that we talk about banning the AFD

00:10:05.960 and that voters are shaken up.

00:10:07.780 Since the German government has decided to specifically target

00:10:10.700 German farmers operating diesel tractors,

00:10:13.420 which is basically all of them,

00:10:15.560 you have to ask the question, what do they really want?

00:10:17.720 Do they expect German farmers to adopt electric tractors?

00:10:21.280 Well, we did some basic research here

00:10:23.300 and it turns out that actually electric tractors

00:10:25.840 might be worse for the environment than diesel tractors.

00:10:29.260 Who could have possibly seen this coming?

00:10:31.500 According to the Washington Policy Center,

00:10:33.500 a Washington state-based think tank,

00:10:35.600 With regular maintenance,

00:10:37.600 a modern farm tractor has a working life measured in decades,

00:10:40.880 reducing waste and environmental impact.

00:10:43.340 In contrast, electric tractors will regularly require

00:10:46.820 replacement of a complete set of acid and lead-based batteries,

00:10:50.960 creating an environmental impact of its own.

00:10:53.620 Furthermore, electric tractors currently available for purchase

00:10:56.840 do not meet the horsepower needs

00:10:59.000 of commercial farming and ranching.

00:11:00.720 Apparently, a 2021 Honda Civic has more horsepower

00:11:05.340 than any of the currently available electric tractors for purchase.

00:11:09.480 And this is where it gets really important.

00:11:11.600 The Washington Policy Center found that lawmakers

00:11:14.240 who champion electric tractor legislation

00:11:16.360 are championing increased food production costs.

00:11:20.100 Of course, if this wildly unpopular plan

00:11:23.300 to remove subsidies for German farmers goes through,

00:11:27.320 food costs for Germans will skyrocket.

00:11:29.920 So why not push forward a climate policy

00:11:32.400 to punish farmers and spike the price of food in their country

00:11:36.660 when Germans are already struggling

00:11:38.640 with out-of-control cost of living?

00:11:40.760 Very similar to what's happening in Canada right now.

00:11:43.040 According to the Clean Energy Wire,

00:11:45.040 the number of households paying more than 10%

00:11:47.580 of their income on energy

00:11:48.860 had jumped from 26% to 43%

00:11:52.260 between March 2022 and June 2023,

00:11:55.380 according to a report

00:11:56.100 from the country's Expert Council for Consumer Affairs.

00:11:58.960 In Germany, a large majority of citizens

00:12:01.840 say they fear that rising living costs

00:12:04.040 will erode their standard of living,

00:12:06.140 fueling fears of social decline.

00:12:08.180 So where does Canada come into all of this?

00:12:10.380 Well, just like in the Netherlands,

00:12:12.060 Canada also, for a time,

00:12:14.160 considered imposing fertilizer emissions reduction targets

00:12:17.360 on Canadian farmers.

00:12:18.880 In the first of three exclusive reports

00:12:20.860 titled The Fertilizer Files,

00:12:21.680 My colleague at True North Cosmon Georgia

00:12:24.520 uncovered a plan from Agriculture Canada

00:12:26.960 to impose a regulatory backstop on farmers

00:12:30.340 should they not voluntarily accept

00:12:33.060 fertilizer emissions reduction targets.

00:12:36.220 And in part three of the fertilizer files,

00:12:38.060 through access to information requests,

00:12:40.300 True North uncovered emails from Fertilizer Canada,

00:12:43.440 an advocacy group to the federal government.

00:12:46.120 According to the reporting,

00:12:47.120 A copy of a speech delivered

00:12:49.260 by Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibaud

00:12:52.060 that same year

00:12:53.140 as part of a sustainable agriculture webinar

00:12:55.260 with European counterparts

00:12:56.580 went even further,

00:12:58.240 describing Canada's measures

00:12:59.540 as, quote,

00:13:00.620 very closely aligned

00:13:02.120 with the fertilizer reduction target

00:13:04.460 in the EU's farm-to-fork strategy.

00:13:07.580 These attacks on farmers

00:13:08.840 are taking place everywhere.

00:13:10.300 It's not just happening in the Netherlands

00:13:11.600 and it's not just happening in Germany.

00:13:13.320 The plans are being made

00:13:14.540 for the same thing to happen here in Canada.

00:13:17.780 And you have to ask yourself,

00:13:19.340 why are these governments

00:13:20.780 who are so committed

00:13:22.200 to solving the so-called climate change crisis

00:13:24.860 attacking the farmers?

00:13:26.920 Well, just like the Germans are showing us, 1.00

00:13:28.600 an attack on farmers

00:13:29.720 is an attack on everyone.

00:13:31.460 And if you don't want to face famine or starvation,

00:13:34.000 now is a pretty good time

00:13:35.220 to start fighting back.

00:13:36.620 All right, everyone,

00:13:37.160 that's going to do it for us today on the show.

00:13:38.700 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:13:40.260 My name is Harrison Faulkner

00:13:41.480 and this is Ratio.

00:13:43.320 We'll see you next time.

Juno News - January 09, 2024

German farmers REVOLT against socialist government

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