Angry farmers

Camping in a field next to the Chancellery in Berlin with about 150 other dairy farmers, the six hunger strikers had vowed not to eat until Angela Merkel met with them to organize an emergency national dairy summit. But Merkel ignored them and the hunger strike was called off after five days when it became dangerous to the farmers' health. But now, only a few days later, old political allies from Bavaria have succeeded in calling a crisis meeting of Germany's state agriculture ministers.

Under pressure from the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), the ministers come together Wednesday, ahead of a meeting next week of European Union agriculture ministers.

Together, the CSU and CDU make up the Union, the conservative senior partner in Germany's coalition government with the Social Democrats.

Bavaria's agriculture minister, Helmut Brunner (CSU), promised on Tuesday that the ministers would come up with "further support measures" for the farmers and bolster support for federal agriculture minister, Ilse Aigner, also of the CSU, before she heads to Brussels for talks.

Farmers demand response from government

The special attention the CSU is paying to the dairy farmers may be a matter of self-preservation. Farmers have long been some of the most devoted Union voters. Yet even as milk, and food prices in general, have dropped dramatically in the last year, there has been little reaction from Berlin.

"I have made my disagreement clear," said Brunner, in response to Merkel's refusal to meet with the striking farmers.

Both the CDU and CSU may face a backlash from voters down on the farm, if the issue is not handled more to their liking.

"There's an estrangement between the farmers and the Union," said Romuald Schaber, head of the Association of German Dairy Farmers. According to a survey conducted by his organization, only 23 percent of dairy farmers would currently vote for the CDU and CSU.

The dairy farmers have been divided themselves over the last several years. The planned lifting of production quotas in 2015, from which the larger farms in the north and east should profit, has angered the predominantly small, independent farmers of Bavaria.

Across Europe the average wholesale price of milk has dropped by half over the last 18 months. German dairy farmers are currently getting around 20 cents ($0.27) a liter.

At first, it was the Bavarian farmers feeling the pinch of dropping prices, but now the "Bavarian illness" has spread.

"There's no difference between East and West or North and South," said Brunner.

hf/AFP/dpa
Editor: Nancy Isenson