The Economist - USA (2020-09-05)

The EconomistSeptember 5th 2020 Europe 43

A

nimal-rightsactivistsoftencom-

plainthatcutebeastsgetmoresym-

pathythanequallydeservinguglyones.

If so,onewouldthinka cuddlycritter

liketheminkwouldbeeasytoprotect.

YetintheNetherlands,minkaretheonly

animalthatcanstilllegallybefarmedfor

theirfur.Thatisabouttochange.On

August28ththegovernmentbrought

forwardtoMarcha banonmink-farming

thathadbeenscheduledtotakeeffectin

2024.Thetimetablewasspedupnot

becauseminkhadbecomemoreador-

able,butbecausetheycancontractco-

vid-19andspreadit tohumans.

Dutchfarmersnormallyraiseabout

2.5mminka year,makingtheNeth-

erlandstheworld’sfourth-largestpro-

ducerafterDenmark,ChinaandPoland.

InAprila clutchofminkandthefarm

handswhotendedthemwerediagnosed

withcovid-19.Genetictracingshowed

thatatleasttwoworkershadprobably

beeninfectedbymink,ratherthanthe

otherwayaround.Thecontaminated

animalsweredestroyedandstricter

hygienerulesimposed,butbysummer

thevirushadspreadtoa thirdofthe

country’sfarms.InJuneparliament

votedtoshutdowntheindustryassoon

aspossible,andthecabinetagreed.

Thatwasa winfortheDutcharmof

PartyfortheAnimals,whichhasfour

seatsinthe150-memberparliament.In

2013 it helpedpassthelawthatgavemink

farmersuntil 2024 togetoutofthebusi-

ness.Nowthepartyanditsalliesobject

tothelavishcompensationthegovern-

menthasofferedforbringingforward

thedeadline:€150m($178m),or€1m-

€1.5mperfarmer.Somemps allegethat

thecompensationpaidfordestroying

theinfectedminkswashigherthanthe

marketpricefortheirfur.

Furfarmerssaymodernstandards

allowminktoberaisedhumanely,and

thattheyarenota bigreasonforthe

spreadofthevirus.Butminkaresolitary

predators;animal-rightsadvocatessay

theycannotberaisedhumanelyin

stackedcages.Asforcovid-19,theworry

isthatminkcouldserveasa reservoirfor

it toevadehumanimmunisationpro-

grammes.Theindustry’sturnoveris

modest(farmersputit at€150m-200m,

activistsatunder€100m),andpollsshow

thepublicoverwhelminglyopposesit.

“Ina democraticcountry,thatwide-

spreadconvictionhastotranslateintoa

politicaldecisiontobanfurfarming,”

saysEstherOuwehand,leaderofthe

PartyfortheAnimals.Thefarmersaccept

theyareshuttingdown.Theremaining

argumentisovermoney.

Notfursale

AnimalrightsintheNetherlands

AMSTERDAM

Covid-19bringsDutchminkfarmingtoanend

Freeatlast

E

ven jacek czaputowicz, the outgoing

Polish foreign minister, called the delay

“strange” in an interview on August 31st

with Rzeczpospolita, a Polish daily. For

three months Arndt Freytag von Loringho-

ven was waiting in his apartment in Berlin

for his agrément (official diplomatic ap-

proval) as German envoy to Warsaw, usual-

ly a swift formality. The order to procrasti-

nate came reportedly from high up:

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, chairman of the ruling

Law and Justice (pis) party, and Poland’s de

facto leader, opposed Mr Freytag von Lo-

ringhoven’s appointment because his fa-

ther served as a military officer in Hitler’s

bunker during the last months of the sec-

ond world war. (Bernd Freytag von Loring-

hoven was never charged with any war

crime.)

It is not the first time Mr Kaczynski has

sought a confrontation with Poland’s

neighbour and biggest trading partner. He

has accused Germany of scheming to re-

cover land it lost to Poland after the war and

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, of

being a pawn of the Stasi, the former East

German secret police. Radek Sikorski, a for-

mer Polish foreign minister whose tenure

was marked by improved relations with

Germany, says Mr Kaczynski’s party called

him a “junior German foreign minister”

after he said in a speech in 2011 in Berlin

that German inaction was scarier than Ger-

mans in action. (The speech was an appeal

to save the euro.) The pis, which was then

in opposition, also tried to get Mr Sikorski

sacked from his job.

In the past few months Andrzej Duda,

Poland’s recently re-elected president,

joined in, with tantrums fanning anti-Ger-

man feeling that play well with older voters

in the less prosperous eastern provinces of

Poland, a pivotal pis constituency. Mr Duda

railed against German interference in the

presidential election campaign in favour of

his opponent, in particular by Fakt, a tab-

loid owned by Ringier Axel Springer, a Ger-

man-Swiss publisher. He singled out Phil-

ipp Fritz, a correspondent for Die Welt, a

German daily, who had suggested that Ra-

fal Trzaskowski, Mr Duda’s rival, would

bring calm to German-Polish relations be-

cause he was unlikely to make astronomi-

cal demands for reparations for the ravages

of the war.

The German government did not with-

draw the appointment of Mr Freytag von

Loringhoven, one of the country’s most ex-

perienced diplomats, who had previously

served as a well-liked ambassador to the

Czech Republic. The standoff started to at-

tract international attention. On the eve-

ning before the 81st anniversary of the Nazi

invasion of Poland on September 1st the

Polish government at last held out an olive

branch. Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek, Po-

land’s deputy foreign minister, announced

the agrément of the new envoy, but not

without referring to a special Polish sensi-

tivity related to “a great unhealed wound in

the minds of the Polish nation” caused by

the crimes of the second world war.

Mr Freytag von Loringhoven will not

have an easy start in Warsaw. He will deal

with Zbigniew Rau, the new foreign minis-

ter, an ardent supporter of pis who has vir-

tually no experience in foreign policy. They

will need to work through complex dis-

putes such as Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline

from western Russia to north-eastern Ger-

many backed by the Germans but bitterly

opposed by the Poles. He will also try to re-

vive the French-German-Polish “Weimar

triangle”, once a constructive forum for po-

litical and military discussions. And he

will clearly have to set aside a lot of time to

be hectored about the horrors that Ger-

many once inflicted on Poland. 7

BERLIN

A low point in German-Polish relations

Germany’s envoy to Poland

Not much of a

welcome