Protesting farmers were met by riot police with fire hoses just metres from the European Parliament on Thursday, as they tried to grab the attention of the European Council by expressing their collective outrage at EU green policies threatening their livelihood.
In an unusually rowdy protest, even by Brussels standards, tyre fires and tractor blockades greeted European leaders as a transnational coalition of farming groups took to the streets. They are angered by EU green policies—including decrees forcing active farmland to go fallow, restricting the use of fertiliser, and limiting permitted amount of livestock—as well as national edicts such as reduced subsidies on diesel fuel—that are direct results of the EU’s Net Zero commitments.
In remarks to The European Conservative, French MEP Thierry Mariani (Rassemblement National-ID) blamed the uproar on the wishes of EU elites to pursue free trade deals while suffocating native European industry with “Soviet-style administration of agriculture,” as well as relentlessly pursuing Ukrainian integration into EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP).
Farmers also denounced the EU for simultaneously negotiating trade deals to allow food imports from countries unfettered by such regulations. This could be seen in recent South American negotiations, halted after French farmer protests convinced President Macron to make a U-turn on the talks.
Tractors had been trickling into the city since early this week with farmers conducting high profile blockades of motorways surrounding Brussels Sunday. The largest contingents of tractors started flooding into Place de Luxembourg—the square in front of the Parliament—early Thursday morning.
This massive show of civil disobedience came as European leaders flew into Brussels to discuss the next €50 billion financial package for Ukraine.
Armoured cars lined the streets near the European Council building from the early morning as protestors avoided the Schumann district where EU leaders were meeting and instead focused their attention on the vicinity of the Parliament, approximately one kilometre away.
As the demonstrations heated up, Belgian riot police clashed with farmers in the forum outside Parliament. Authorities responded with water hoses to tyre fires being lit and some protestors were struck with glass bottles. Farmers tried on multiple occasions to break through the police barricades only to be met with water cannons.
A famous statue near the Parliament of an industrialist was torn down, leading left-wing MEPs to immediately take to social media to blame the day’s unrest on the ‘far right’—and even the Hungarian government.
Among the groups represented at today’s protest were the Italian farming group Coldiretti as well as members of the Dutch BBB movement.
Speakers outside the European Parliament blamed a race to the bottom in food prices and relentless green austerity as the reasons for their protest.
Farmers are expected to stay in the city into the weekend. The current wave of protests across Europe are likely to increase in intensity in the coming months, ahead of European elections in June.
