Token concessions by the EU Commission and national governments have not subdued Europe’s rising tide of protests from the agrarian sector as farmers from across the continent continued massive protests against policies creating an existential crisis for European agriculture.
Across Europe, farmer protests are only picking up steam. French farmers have come to the support of construction companies continuing an over two-week blockade of a strategically important oil depot. Dutch fishermen showed up to support farmers, shooting off emergency flares on the dock by their fishing vessels. Belgian farmers have targeted food warehouses, while, in England, tractors conducted a go-slow demonstration near the Port of Dover against the prospect of future free trade deals by the post-Brexit UK government. Farmers have also staged protests in Moldova, Slovenia, Slovakia, and a number of other European countries.
In Rome, farmers rolled back a planned large presence in fear of losing their currently strong public support, opting instead for a smaller symbolic manifestation in front of the Colosseum. The Italian government of Giorgia Meloni promised to partially reintroduce a tax break on struggling farmers in the face of the protests. Italian farmers have raised concerns about rising production costs, prohibitive ‘green’ EU policies, and also competition from cheap North African imports.
Similarly, Latvian farmers staged mass demonstrations across the country against Russian and Belarussian imports following similar protest movements in Hungary and Poland regarding Ukrainian products. Hungarian agriculture expert Csaba Juhasz told BBC,
According to my calculations, the average loss this year to a farmer for the wheat we planted last September will be about €300 per hectare … That’s taking any subsidies or support we receive into account.
Collapsing prices caused by cheap imports is only one of the farmers’ concerns that seems to fall on deaf ears as the EU committed to another year of suspended tariffs on Ukraine imports, despite the complaints of farming groups.
European farmers are fighting harsh ‘green deal’ regulations that hamper their ability to make a living, while EU countries in a hypocritical move are increasing imports of food from countries unburdened by such limitations.
In the Polish cities of Bydgoszcz and Poznan, tractors lined the roads protesting cheap grain imports from Ukraine.
The rise of farmer protests in Poland has further heightened the country’s existing political tensions. The liberal Tusk government seized the opportunity to launch an attack against the conservative European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, appointed by the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government. Polish farmer organisations defended the commissioner against Polish government calls for his resignation over the weekend.
There is speculation that the Tusk government is using the farmer protests to pile pressure on Wojciechowski. The newly installed pro-EU government in Warsaw appears to be conducting a rapid institutional purge of right-wing elements loyal to the now departed conservative PiS party, which, in the October elections, won the largest number of votes but was unable to form a coalition to govern.
Wojciechowski denied reports that he would step down from the top job, citing support from the Polish agricultural sector, even as a PiS leader stated he would ask Wojciechowski to resign.
