Farmers' association gives agriculture minister ultimatum over EU direct payments

In the dispute over the payment of EU direct payments, the state farmers' association has issued an ultimatum to Agriculture Minister Wolfram Günther (Greens). If no money is transferred to the farmers by the end of January, he will have to resign or otherwise be dismissed by Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU), said Farmers' President Torsten Krawczyk on Friday in Limbach-Oberfrohna. His profession will propose an alternative candidate from the ranks of the Greens who it considers suitable. Krawczyk emphasized that he hoped that a different minister would bring more movement to the matter.

The dispute involves around 241 million euros for around 7,000 businesses in Saxony. Until now, the money was always transferred at the end of the year. However, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, this has not yet been possible due to problems with software adaptation.