CDU parliamentary group blocks agricultural structure law in Saxony

The CDU parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament has rejected the planned agricultural structure law in its current version, thereby blocking a project by its Green coalition partner. The CDU parliamentary group leader Christian Hartmann said on Friday on the fringes of a parliamentary group meeting in Zwickau that they would not give their consent to the draft law and referred to the mood within the farming community. The majority of their associations reject the law. However, a "decision against the associations" could not be made.

Hartmann did not assume that this would jeopardize the continued existence of the coalition. The coalition partners had been informed on Friday morning. "I don't think this will go down well in parts of the coalition," admitted the parliamentary group leader. "Nevertheless, we are prepared to discuss a modified version of the Agricultural Structure Act with the involvement of the associations." The ministry had started a dialog with the farmers' associations. An amendment to the law could also be discussed in this context.

The Saxon Ministry of Agriculture wants to use the law to prevent agricultural land from being sold off. A key concern is to limit access to agricultural land for ownership and lease "in one hand" to an acceptable level and thus limit the influence of individual market participants, as the ministry formulated the issue just under a year ago. However, critics also fear more bureaucracy.

According to Hartmann, the CDU believes that control in this area makes sense. However, it could not focus on "strengthening environmental associations", but rather on securing agricultural land for the agricultural industry. The parliamentary group leader considered it rather unlikely that a modified version of the law would be passed by the end of the legislative period in a few months' time. However, there is the possibility of creating a basis for a decision in the new legislative period in the ongoing dialog.

Recently, the adoption of a new public procurement law for the Free State was put on hold at the instigation of the coalition. The project, which is mainly supported by the SPD, is intended to link the awarding of public contracts to certain conditions and no longer just award the contract to the cheapest bidder.