The German town that wants pork sausages sold at vegetarian food festival

If there’s one food that you might accept won’t be on offer at a vegetarian street festival it’s a nice meaty sausage.

Unless, that is, you’re a councillor in a German town that is particularly proud of its pork-based delicacies. They say any ban on its meat products is an affront to the city’s identity.

Councillors in Kassel, in the central Hesse region, want the vegetarian event’s organisers to allow the sale of regional sausages, including the cured ahle wurst, according to the Hessenschau website.

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The festival is being organised by UmweltHaus, an environmental group, to mark Earth Day on 23 April.

But at a meeting on Monday, councillors backed a motion asking UmweltHaus to serve local organic meat at the event.

However, they face accusations of playing politics with the event as the town is presently in the grip of a mayoral election campaign.

“This is an issue that is close to people’s hearts, and for that reason it is of course something we can’t ignore in local politics,” said Dominique Kalb, candidate for the conservative CDU party. He said that ahle wurst is “simply an essential part” of local festivals.

The Greens’ candidate, Eva Koch, conceded that for some the meat-free nature of the event would be “a real kick in the guts”.

UmweltHaus is standing by its position, saying that there is no room for any more stalls at the festival – and that meat production doesn’t fit with the sustainable theme of Earth Day.

The lack of meat has certainly not gone down too well with locals with more traditional views. The local Senior Citizens’ Advisory Council says it won’t be attending the event in protest at the lack of sausages.