Continued protests by angry farmers across Europe

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, the German newspaper Tagus Zeitung wrote in a report: The protests of angry farmers continue throughout Europe.

The protests of angry farmers were held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, at the same time as the meeting of European leaders.

Angry young farmers make barriers in front of the European Parliament. set up Others vandalized and set fire to a monument in Luxembourg Square. Clouds of smoke darkened the sky of Brussels. Police said there were about 1,300 tractors in the city.

But many farmers see the EU’s proposed measures as just a sedative. They want immediate help and less bureaucracy. During the farmers’ revolt in Brussels, it was said that the European Union imposes too many environmental and climate regulations and primarily subsidizes big agricultural businesses, leaving out small farmers.

For a third day. Consecutively, the French capital was not accessible by highway on Thursday. The farmers were able to surround Paris with barriers of their tractors and cars. In several places, the police tried to stop them with armored vehicles.

While access to Paris and other French cities was still blocked by about 10,000 farmers with 8,500 tractors, the government of the third wave of financial and political concessions. announced on Thursday. In a press conference, the French Prime Minister Gabriel Atal along with three of his ministers announced more concessions for farmers. Atal promised an emergency financial aid worth 150 million euros in the form of tax exemptions and duties of 2 billion. Another gave for facilitated bonds. More generally, he would like to enshrine national “agricultural sovereignty” as a goal in law. The prime minister also addressed farmers’ concerns about cheap imports: Attal promised that France would not sign the Mercosur agreement with the four Latin American countries. He also agreed to start negotiations on the (active) import of grain from Ukraine.

Following these promises, the major farmers’ union, FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs, on Thursday asked their members to end the blockade of highways and take the main roads and return to their farms in an “orderly” manner.

However, the farmers blocked the highway between France and Baden-Württemberg with about 400 tractors. Despite calls from French agricultural unions to end the blockade after the Paris government promised help, farmers in Alsace and Baden began blocking the Neuchâtel motorway triangle on Thursday afternoon.

The A36 motorway that connects the A5 on the German side of the Rhine and connects the A35 on the left bank of the Rhine in France, blocked near the French border town of Ottmarsheim. As the newspaper “Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace” reported, the roadblocks stretched for kilometers.

Arnaide Guillot, of the Jeunes Farmers Union, announced that farmers want to see tangible improvements by the end of February.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire promised more control at large supermarket chains, also with the aim of declaring the origin of products.

Unlike in France and Germany, farmers’ protests in Italy have yet to reach the capital. The country has not arrived. But farmers in different areas used their tractors south of Brenner Pass. In Tuscany, hundreds of farmers gathered on the highway between Milan and Rome. There were similar measures in Lombardy, where long convoys of tractors blocked traffic and blocked highway entrances. Similar images can be seen in southern Italy.

The grievances of Italian farmers are the same everywhere – and primarily directed at the European Union. Of course, in Italy it is also important that agricultural diesel is tax-free in the future. Above all, however, the complaints are against Brussels’ “green” agricultural policy.

However, the main irritant is that producers’ incomes for agricultural products are too low and, as the protestors criticize, , has not covered costs for decades. They also want Brussels to respond negatively to artificial meat grown from cell culture.

Blocked highways, tractor columns and angry farmers were also seen in Italy. Farmers in Italy also voiced their frustration. Motivated by their colleagues in Germany and France, from Lombardy to Sicily, they protested against bureaucracy, environmental regulations and high fuel costs.

At night and in the fog, Lombard farmers came out of their fields to gather in Melegnano. . Many of the protesters are small business owners who have been forced to lay off workers because of climate change and excessive bureaucracy.

The banners read: “No farmers, no food, no future.” . Demonstrators want the government of right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to better defend the interests of Italian farmers in Brussels.

Angry farmers also took to the streets in Austria and protested against the policies of the government and the European Union.

The European Union Commission announced on Wednesday that it may want to intervene at least in the case of chicken, eggs and sugar, imposing tariffs if the volume of imports of these agricultural products from Ukraine exceeds the average imports of 2022 and 2023. reapply. However, this is not enough for Austrian farmers.

Georg Strasser, head of the Austrian Farmers’ Association, declared: “This can only be the first step. Austrian arable farmers have to compete with Ukrainian grain, even if we to be self-sufficient. This cannot be the right way, which is why more action is needed from the Commission and rapid extension to arable crops.”

end of message/