A German politician, Günther Felßner, the president of the Bavarian Farmers’ Association (BBV), has withdrawn his candidacy for the federal agricultural minister position. He made the announcement in a personal statement to the press at the BBV headquarters in Munich, citing the danger to his family as the reason.
Earlier, on Monday, militant animal rights activists from the group “Animal Rebellion” had visited Felßner’s private farm in Günthersbühl, in the Nürnberger Land district and set off Bengalos on the roof while Felßner was in Berlin, participating in coalition negotiations.
Campact, an environmental and animal rights organization, had previously launched a petition to prevent Felßner from taking the ministerial position, calling him a “lobbyist for the agricultural industry” and accusing him of being a “convicted environmental polluter.”
Felßner stated that he is not willing to put his family’s safety at risk, nor the farm and its animals and that he has decided not to be available for the ministerial position under these circumstances.
The incident was reported by the ARD’s 8 pm news, with a brief article stating that Felßner had withdrawn his candidacy and that the event had sparked protests against his potential appointment.
The CSU’s chairman, Markus Söder, reacted to the event, saying that the actions of the activists were “not a form of opinion exchange, but a criminal behavior.” The Minister of Agriculture, Michaela Kaniber, called the attacks a “serious threat to democracy.”
Norwich Rüße, a Green politician in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, commented on the incident, saying, “You can disagree with Günther Felßner as a potential federal agricultural minister. What, however, is completely unacceptable is the complete disregard for the privacy of the family. That’s not how we treat each other in a democratic society!”
Felßner, who has been the president of the BBV since 2022 and the vice-president of the German Farmers’ Association since 2023, must now be replaced in a timely manner. The CSU will reportedly still occupy the agricultural ministry with one of their own candidates, but no names or candidates have been announced yet.