Italian and Lithuanian farmers are protesting against regulations that are endangering their livelihoods—joining Belgian, French, Spanish, Polish, and Romanian farmers in an EU-wide wave of anger.
“Europe imposes rules on us that make no sense. We can no longer make a living. We want to make more money and have our products valued for what they are,” Luisito Naldi, one of the organisers of protests in northern Italy told AFP.
Dozens of Italian farmers staged a protest with tractors near Milan on Tuesday, January 30th. Impromptu protests against EU and national regulations have sprung up in recent weeks from Sicily to Trento, with reports of convoys blocking roads now regular occurrences.
The protesters are angry about EU ‘green’ regulations and the impact of inflation and taxes on their products. They have demanded that their mortgage repayments be suspended. “We are protesting for the same reasons that they demonstrate in France, in Germany, Poland, and Romania,” said Naldi.
Farmers in the Baltic state of Lithuania are also unhappy with Net Zero taxes on fuel and regulations that require them to transform uncultivated lands into permanent grasslands, low milk prices, and Russian grain transit—which they claim is pushing down the prices of their own grain exports. Farmers in tractors took to the capital on Tuesday for a protest set to continue until Friday.
Protests by Belgian, French and German farmers have been at the forefront of EU-wide demonstrations in the last few weeks, with their Spanish colleagues recently announcing that they are also planning protests. They are angry about rising costs, EU environmental policies, and cheap food imports.
Farmer protests in France have led President Emmanuel Macron to abandon continued negotiations on a prospective free trade agreement between the EU and South America. Farming groups fear dropping tariffs between European and South American producers could lead to the EU being overwhelmed by cheap—and substandard—imports from countries that do not adhere to the EU’s green deal regulations.
In France, farmers blockaded highways with their tractors near Paris and set bales of hay ablaze to partly restrict access to Toulouse airport. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said there were 10,000 protesting farmers on French roads on Wednesday, blocking 100 spots along major roads. Convoys were also attempting to encircle Lyon, France’s third-biggest city.
In Belgium, farmers took control of access roads to the Zeebrugge container port.
Farmers from Belgium, France, and Luxembourg are expected to continue their demonstration in the European quarter of Brussels as well, until at least Thursday, where EU leaders will convene for a summit to discuss the funding of Ukraine. Major traffic disruptions are expected throughout Brussels all day on Wednesday and Thursday, and even more protests are planned across the whole of Belgium over the course of the week.
