Czech farmers joined the pan-European protest movement Monday, driving their tractors into the center of Prague in the early morning hours. As their counterparts in other countries, the Czech farmers are protesting the EU’s Green Deal, high energy costs, and burdensome bureaucracy.
Protesters carried a letter with demands they intended to deliver to Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny. The Czech government has denied that the protests are related to farming, with PM Petr Fiala accusing organizers of being “pro-Russian” or having other political goals. Fiala said the government is in talks with “those who represent farmers.”
The European Conservative spoke with 42-year-old protesting farmer Vojtěch, who runs a family farm near Prague, at the manifestation:
“We are here because we don’t agree with some things that our government does—we do not agree with the [green] new deal.”
You’re talking about the Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products that are not subject to the same regulations that EU agricultural products are?
Not only Ukraine, but mainly Ukraine. I hear something about Moldavia and Vietnam and so on, but states outside of the European Union can now sell on the same market as we. But we have another—absolutely another [restrictions and regulations].
And of course, the EU regulations make production much more expensive?
Regulations mean more expensive products. Machines are maybe twice as much as in other countries outside the EU. And we also have much more expensive fertilizers—and of course we cannot use them as we need because we must be regulated. We must be very careful what we are using on the fields. Everything we use, we must register, administer, and so on—and then we sell on the same market as farmers without these requirements.
It’s not fair. This is the main reason why we are here.
Photo: Robert Semonsen
Are you also here because of Green Deal policies that Brussels is imposing on farmers?
When Green Deal policies are imposed only in Europe, it completely destroys Europe, as it makes us far less competitive.
Now we have two decisions: We can still have the Green Deal or we can help Ukrainian farmers, but not together. We must drop the restrictions of the Green Deal and be a little bit closer to [how farming is done in] Ukraine and then we can help them—or we go our way, the European way, the Green Deal way, but without imports from countries outside the European Union. We cannot combine these two.
I noticed that the tractors aren’t blocking the entire road. Was this done out of respect for those commuting to work?
As you can see, our tractors are only obstructing one of the three lanes, the remaining lanes are completely free. We don’t want to block anything. We simply want to show the government that we are here and we have concerns.
We respect the traffic here. We don’t want to make a problem. This is one reason we came here in the very early morning. We don’t want to block the way into Prague. We only want to be seen. We would like to begin a dialogue with our government because it ignores our concerns and never asks for our input. So we’re hoping with this demonstration in their city, they will be compelled to open up a dialogue.
Do you expect the government to respond to these protests?
Yes, because of our protests, they made some small steps. It seems like some small changes will be made. I’m hopeful because I think we have shown that we are not stupid, angry farmers. We don’t want to destroy or disrupt anything. We only want to say what we need.
