Farmer misses out on entry into the Bundestag: Lobbyist Felßner wants to become Minister of Agriculture even without a mandate
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Felßner was in third place on the CSU candidate list, but he was not chosen because the party won all constituencies in Bavaria directly. Felßner did not run directly as a candidate. A federal minister does not have to have a parliamentary mandate. CSU leader Söder has claimed the Ministry of Agriculture for his party and specifically for Felßner.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, agriculture, including emissions from soil and machinery, caused 14 percent of greenhouse gases in Germany in 2023. The majority is related to animal husbandry. Agriculture is also largely responsible for the fact that more and more plant and animal species are becoming extinct.
But during the election campaign, Felßner described farm animals as "climate neutral," contrary to the opinion of experts. In 2018, a court sentenced the dairy farmer from Franconia to a fine of 7,200 euros for soil and water pollution. He has repeatedly called for the reduction of environmental requirements for the annual EU agricultural subsidies of around 55 billion euros. During the farmers' protests a year ago, Felßner threatened that farmers and their allies would " paralyze " Germany.
This time, the research group Wahlen has not published any data on the voting behavior of farmers. "We are no longer surveying farmers due to the small group size," a spokeswoman for the opinion research institute told taz.In the elections to the EU Parliament and to the state parliaments in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia last year, an above-average number of farmers voted for the AfD, according to data from that time.
taz