Veggie day controversy
The controversy surrounding the Veggie Day was a political argument in the run-up to the German federal election in 2013 . The recommendation by Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen to introduce a “ Veggie Day ” in public canteens to reduce meat consumption in Germany sparked a lively public debate during the election campaign .
The Veggie Day in the election manifesto of the Greens
In November 2010 a federal delegates ' conference decided to support Veggie Day initiatives. With this support for a "small change in our lifestyle" one wants to "show the flag against the destructive means of industrial agricultural production: overexploitation of the climate and nature, unjust distribution of soil, water and food, waste of food and animal-torturing factory farming". The decision was based on the principle of sustainability , resource and climate protection as well as fair distribution . The Veggieday is an “effective demonstration”, with which “more people can be induced to think about 'ingrained' consumption habits”.
The Bundestag faction of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen decided in February 2011 on a position paper that was based on this party congress resolution. The Veggieday campaign should therefore be supported as a political signal.
In April 2013, Alliance 90 / The Greens adopted an election program in which the Greens' ideas for a transformation of industrial society were formulated on 327 pages. In the chapter on factory farming there was a passage on Veggie Day which said:
“We Germans eat around 60 kilos of meat per person per year. This high meat consumption not only harbors health risks. It also enforces factory farming that takes no account of people, animals and the environment. That is why we demand more consumer education about the health, social and ecological consequences of meat consumption. Public canteens should take on pioneering functions. Offers of vegetarian and vegan dishes and a "Veggie Day" should become standard. We want a label for vegetarian and vegan products. "
Course of the public debate
The ARD Berlin correspondent Sarah Renner sees the excitement about the Veggie Day as a political lesson for the positioning of an election campaign topic in the summer slump . She describes the process as follows: First, in mid-July, a CDU member of the Rhineland-Palatinate Bundestag who was not mentioned by name invited Berlin journalists to a background discussion. A longer list of alleged bans and prohibition plans by the Greens was presented, from night fishing to light pollution to pony riding at public festivals. The FAZ immediately took up the issue on July 16, 2013 and referred by name to the deputy chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, Michael Fuchs , as the author of the list. The following day the Bildzeitung came out with an initial report, but without getting any particular response.
Two weeks later, brought tabloid the issue on August 5 under the lead story The Greens want to ban us the meat! again and passed this on as a report to the news agencies. According to the journalist Stefan Niggemeier , the Bildzeitung scandalized a well-known position of the Greens with a “typically wrong headline” and several years late in the election campaign .
This second attempt by the newspaper Bild led to a "media outcry". Within a short period of time, the press agencies first took over the topic, then the other media. Thereupon there was excitement and outrage in the ranks of the Union parties , the SPD and the FDP . Nazi comparisons and other statements became the subject of new media reports, so that the topic remained in the media for a long time.
The response in social networks was particularly great and was the subject of intense debate on Facebook and Twitter . The Wirtschaftswoche According to the "Veggie Day" in August one of the five most frequently discussed topics was and had "monitor" or "NSA " behind.
According to Forsa boss Manfred Güllner , the debate about the Veggieday promoted the image of the Greens as a “paternalistic party” and damaged the party.
After the general election, Veggie Day disappeared from the media. However, within the Green Party there was a dispute over how to shake off the stigma of the Prohibition Party. At a federal delegates' conference in November 2014, the Greens expressly said goodbye to Veggie Day with a narrow majority. "We don't care whether someone eats meat on Thursday or not," said the decision.
Positions
Political opponents of the Greens used the debate to portray them as a party of prohibition and regulation. The recommendation for a veggie day was compared, among other things, with the demand for a serious increase in petrol prices in the context of the federal delegates' conference of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen in Magdeburg in 1998 .
On the one hand, politicians of the Greens tried to explain the arguments in favor of a Veggie Day, on the other hand they emphasized that there is no legal obligation and that this is not even possible. In addition to criticism, the initiative received support in the media and from associations.
Survey
The debate led to several surveys about the acceptance of a meatless day in large kitchens, which in August 2013 led to different results almost simultaneously.
| Institute | Per | Contra |
|---|---|---|
| Emnid | 53% | 44% |
| Forsa | 50% | 48% |
| IfD Allensbach | 46% | 41% |
| Infratest dimap | 36% | 61% |
| YouGov | 45% | 43% |
The polls agreed that Veggie Day was rated positively by women, younger people and voters in particular. In contrast, it is particularly rejected by men, the elderly and voters of the FDP and CDU / CSU.
Individual evidence
- ↑ BÜNDNIS 90 / DIE GRÜNEN support “Veggie Day” ( memento of the original from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 37 kB) 19. to 21. November 2010. Party convention resolution. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
- ^ Lothar Probst: Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen: Crash after flying high , in: The parties after the federal election 2013 , ed. v. Oskar Niedermayer, Wiesbaden 2015, p. 140.
- ↑ Time for green change ( Memento of the original from August 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Bundestag election program 2013 of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, adopted at the 35th Ordinary Federal Delegates Conference of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen from April 26 to 28, 2013 in Berlin, p. 164.
- ↑ a b Through the summer slump with tofu - excitement about VeggieDay , Sarah Renner and Stephan Ueberbach , SWR, August 7, 2013
- ↑ Ideas of the Greens: Anything banned today ? FAZ July 16, 2013
- ↑ The Greens want to forbid us to eat meat! - Bild.de, August 5, 2013
- ↑ Stefan Niggemeier : Veggie Day: How to make news out of old meat waste from the "Bild" newspaper , August 5, 2013
- ↑ a b Lothar Probst: Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen: Crash after flying high , in: The parties after the federal election 2013 , ed. v. Oskar Niedermayer, Wiesbaden 2015, p. 149.
- ↑ a b The Veggie Days of the Other Parties , Der Tagesspiegel, August 9, 2013
- ↑ a b Meatless in the election campaign , Zeit Online, August 5, 2013
- ↑ Oliver Voss: This is how the network votes: “Veggie Day” revives the listless election campaign. In: Wirtschaftswoche August 7, 2013
- ↑ SpOn of August 28, 2013 "Election campaign 2013: Greens fall in survey to annual low"
- ↑ Ulrike Winkelmann, Never Again Veggieday , taz online, January 10, 2014
- ↑ Claudia Kade, Veggie Day won't let go of the Greens , Die Welt Online, November 21, 2014
- ↑ Quiz on "Veggie Day": Vegetables are my meat by Bertolt Hunger and Nicolai Kwasniewski SPON September 20, 2013
- ↑ So Tanja Dückers , The world rescue stops with the schnitzel , Die Zeit, August 7, 2013
- ↑ a b Half of Germans want Veggie Day. Men value their daily dose of meat , Focus Online , Aug. 11, 2013
- ↑ Veggie Day Divides the Land , Stern online , August 14, 2013
- ↑ Do without the schnitzel? ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , published in Handelsjournal on September 19, 2013
- ↑ Survey: 61 percent against “Veggie Day” , Saarbrücker Zeitung online, published in Welt am Sonntag on August 11, 2013
- ↑ Meat consumption increases with income , Zeit online , August 8, 2013
