Convoys of tractors were seen on the motorway heading to the Flemish city of Antwerp this morning as approximately 1,000 farmers and assorted supporters gathered to protest government hypocrisy over the implementation of new nitrogen emission regulations, which they say will shatter their livelihoods.
This is just the latest example of agrarian discontent growing throughout Europe. The Flemish Farmers Defence Force (FDF) aims to copy the recent advances made by their Dutch counterparts with direct action against government moves to enforce new nitrogen cuts, which they feel will cripple the Belgian agricultural industry.
Farmers focused the Friday morning protest on a planned chemical plant owned by the British multinational Inspec Ethylene Oxide and Specialities (INEOS), which was recently given a licence by the regional Flemish government despite pollution fears and the ongoing assault on the farmers over nitrogen emissions.
In an interview with local Flemish media, FDF spokesman Bart Dickens described the government decision to allow INEOS to proceed with their new plant, while penalising farmers, as a sign of the ruling N-VA party’s double standards when it came to nitrogen cuts: prioritising big business over agricultural producers.
Dickens went on to say that while he and the FDF had nothing against the INEOS company directly, the chemical giant has been able to take advantage of regulatory exemptions that small farmers could only dream of, as their industry has been driven to “extinction” by the new nitrogen regulations.
Despite pledges by the FDF to keep the protest non-violent, Belgian police were out in force to prevent any possible roadblocks, which have been common throughout the past three years of agrarian turmoil in the Netherlands.
Activists from the right-wing populist party Vlaams Belang were also in attendance at the Friday protest, which concluded at 4:00 p.m. at the site of the planned INEOS plant in Spoor Oost in east Antwerp.
Both Belgian and Dutch farmers brought the Brussels city centre to a standstill in March over the nitrogen plans, which the EU defends as being essential to preventing an environmental collapse.
The Dutch BBB party soared in recent regional elections to become the nation’s largest party as the EU’s Green Deal architect, Frans Timmermans, returned to national politics in the Netherlands to combat the agrarian populists ahead of the November elections.
