Germany’s finance minister today called farmers’ protests against the phasing out of subsidies “disproportionate” ahead of the planned start on Monday of a week of demonstrations and unrest across Germany..

Demonstrations must “always remain proportionate within our democratic right,” Christian Lindner, one of the most influential figures in Olaf Solz’s center-left government, said during a speech at his party’s traditional Epiphany meeting in Stuttgart (southwest ).

The nationwide lockout actions announced starting Monday, farmers are on the other “disproportionate”the liberal minister judged.

He even referred to the incident that took place on Thursday night, when around 30 angry farmers blocked a ship carrying Green Economy Minister and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck, who was returning from a holiday on Halig Hoge, a tourist island in North Sea.

“The dangerous situation in which my colleague Robert Habeck found himself is unacceptable,” said Lindner, joining strong condemnations expressed the previous day by several parties, the government, the head of state and the German Farmers’ Union (DBV).

In this particular case, as in all possible material damages and offenses that could result from the actions announced, justice will impose the consequences, he warned.

“You have gone astray, turn back,” Lindner said to the farmers.

In fact, he also rejected their requests. “We cannot on the one hand want to benefit from the reduction in electricity tax, we cannot ask for additional help to convert barns and on the other hand cling to old subsidies. If we want new subsidies, we must also abandon the old ones,” he said.

Farmers’ anger had flared after planned cuts to subsidies for the sector due to the financial crisis and did not subside even after the German government partially backed down to phase out rather than immediately scrap the farm diesel subsidy for agricultural vehicles.

According to Berlin, the controversial subsidy will be phased out by 2026, but that is not enough for farmers, as it is part of a wider web of austerity measures expected to hit them in the coming years. Among them, changes to the perennially favorable road tax regime for agricultural vehicles.

The cuts are part of a broader curb on government spending in the 2024 budget, following a ruling by the German Constitutional Court that freezes so-called “hidden funds” and requires an adjustment to constitutional checks on public borrowing.