05/02/2003 
The Pig Farming Decree after the regional elections in Hesse and Lower Saxony: "The clever man, he honours the pig; ..."
A comment by Detlef Breuer
As was predicted by the opinion polls, the CDU and FDP parties won a great majority during the regional elections in Hesse and Lower Saxony on February 2nd, 2003. In the Bundesrat (upper house of German parliament), the federal states that are governed by the CDU/CSU (conservative) parties thus could increase their lead to 41 votes. Although the CDU/CSU parties did not reach the two-thirds majority in the Bundesrat which would be needed for blocking any kind of laws, the red-green government nevertheless will be unable to have important laws ratified in future, unless the opposition parties give their consent to the laws. When talking about the majority ratio as it is in the Bundesrat now, people already speak of a
grand coalition. Roland Koch, minister-president in Hesse, offers the government a new form of cooperation, presenting his
Group of Cs(cooperation, constructiveness, control). Regarding the Pig Farming Decree, which requires approval in the Bundesrat, this is a good beginning, as showed during the plenary session held at the Bundestag on January 30th, 2003.
For realising the EU directive, which must still be dealt with for making it a national Pig Farming Decree, this might mean perfect realisation - which was demanded for by the CDU and FDP parties at the Bundestag only just last week. Even within the SPD (social democratic party) there are more and more signs indicating that the members of parliament are willing to agree to a way of realisation that orientates to practical daily life - as became clear during the speech the now retiring Lower Saxony Minister of Agriculture, Mr Uwe Bartels, held before the Bundestag.
It seems that meanwhile the Greens are left all alone with their demand to
put the pig farmers in their placein Germany, quite
in the manner of the guidelines made for the keeping of laying hens.
Even if - contrary to all expectations - the red-green coalition government were able to have a clear tightening up ratified in parliament, this decree would finally fail at the Bundesrat or before its mediation committee. Due to the changes in the majority ratio, the red-green coalition is no longer in a position to outvote the opposition parties at the mediation committee.
Should this be a U-turn in the Green Party's agricultural policy?
It certainly won't.
But a very cautious, cross-party way of coming closer to each other becomes apparent. After two years of uncertainty, the German pig farmers draw new hope from this, because ...
... the clever man, he honours the pig;
he ponders about its shapeless fig.
From outside it's not really fine,
but: the bacon is inside the swine.
(Wilhelm Busch; German poet; 1832-1908)
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