More than a thousand tractors occupied the European district of Brussels this Thursday as part of a demonstration aimed at concentrating the anger of the rural population, which has been expressed in several European countries in recent weeks through various actions in a major protest in front of the institutions of the European Union was expressed in the Belgian capital. The demonstration, which brings together farmers from various countries, takes place on the same day that the heads of state and government of the 27 countries meet in Brussels in an extraordinary manner. Although European leaders came with the primary aim of discussing the aid package for Ukraine, rural dissatisfaction was creeping in, reflected in the very streets where their delegations traveled to the European event, into their agenda.
Different arguments have been put forward in protests by European farmers who have carried out blockades from Germany to France, Poland and Slovakia in recent weeks. But at some point they all unite in their anger at the “incoherence of European policies” which, as Italian, Belgian and French farmers, many of them young, complained in Brussels this Thursday, does not allow them to earn a sufficient income for your work. .
“Europe has to make a decision: the European Green Deal and ultra-liberalism are incompatible,” claimed Astrid Ayral of the Belgian agricultural union FUGEA on Luxembourg Square in front of the main entrance to the European Parliament, where the protests took place. The protests concentrated and it came to several incidents in which some protesters burned straw bales and tires and toppled part of a statue. Its foundation defends “environmentally friendly” agriculture, as promoted by the EU Green Deal policy.
The problem, says Ayral, is that this requires “fair prices” that allow farmers to live in dignity and make profitable the investments that this European policy requires, but which cannot even be recouped. And this means, he stressed, that Europe must be more “protectionist” and stop signing trade agreements like Mercosur with countries that, in the general opinion of protesters, pave the way for products with lower requirements than those of the EU.
The statue of John Cockerill lies next to a barrel in Luxembourg Square in Brussels this Thursday during the farmers' protests.OLIVIER MATTHYS (EFE)
A demonstrator throws a bottle at the police during the farmers' protest in Brussels this Thursday. DIRK WAEM / Belga Press / Contac (DIRK WAEM / Belga Press / Contac)
Two demonstrators use a fence to protect themselves from a jet of water from riot police in front of the European Parliament this Thursday. Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)
Dozens of tractors block a street in the center of Brussels during the farmers' protest this Thursday. Photonews (Photonews via Getty Images)
Farmers protesting in front of the EU headquarters this Thursday in Brussels. Thomas Padilla (AP)
Dozens of tractors were photographed this Thursday from a building in the center of Brussels. HATIM KAGHAT / Belgian Press / With (HATIM KAGHAT / Belgian Press / With)
Riot police throw water at demonstrators during the protest in front of the European Parliament this Thursday in Brussels. YVES HERMAN (Portal)
Farmers and ranchers throw objects at the police in front of the EU headquarters in Brussels this Thursday. YVES HERMAN (Portal)
A demonstrator protests next to a bonfire in front of the European Parliament in Brussels this Thursday. YVES HERMAN (Portal)
European farmers are protesting this Thursday in front of the European Union headquarters in Brussels. YVES HERMAN (Portal)
A man throws eggs at the police during the protest by farmers and ranchers this Thursday in Brussels.YVES HERMAN (Portal)
Police officers protect the headquarters of the European Union during the farmers' protest in Brussels this Thursday. YVES HERMAN (Portal)
A person next to a bonfire during the European farmers' protest this Thursday in Brussels. YVES HERMAN (Portal)
Dozens of farmers are protesting with their tractors in the center of Brussels this Thursday. YVES HERMAN (Portal)
Farmers are protesting in Luxembourg Square in Brussels this Thursday. DIRK WAEM / Belga Press / Contac (DIRK WAEM / Belga Press / Contac)
Several tractors circulate through the center of Brussels early in the day this Thursday.Thierry Monasse (Getty Images)
“We are calling for mirror clauses in trade agreements so that agricultural products from other countries meet the same requirements as ours.” We do not reject phytosanitary requirements, but we want those who sell here to comply with them. And we also want dignity and respect,” claimed José María Castilla, representative of the Spanish agricultural association Asaja in Brussels, one of the organizers of the protest, which managed to block the main roads around the European institutions with around 1,300 large tractors and mostly very new. “We are calling for the laws to be paralyzed. We can’t take it anymore, every day a new rule is passed,” he added.
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“Is it organic to buy meat 10,000 kilometers away?” asked further away Ludo, a fifth-generation farmer who runs an egg farm in Charleroi in Wallonia, the French-speaking Belgium where most of the protests have been focused this week Country. “With foreign competition, the fact that we are poorly paid and the changing European rules,” young people have fewer and fewer opportunities to continue in this field, laments this young father, who doubts that his children will continue the family business.
“We are not against Europe, but we have to rethink the rules if they do not want us to leave the country,” warned Enerico Pasini, national president of the young farmers of the Italian Coldiretti union and an olive grower in the south of his country.
From early morning, the heavy agricultural vehicles rushed through the main streets of the European Quarter and tried to converge on Luxembourg Square, where the first incidents began early in the morning with the destruction of a statue, which led to the intervention of the police. Police. Some farmers also threw eggs and stones at the European Parliament early in the morning and lit several large bonfires with bales of straw near the building, onto which they also threw some burnt tires. According to Portal, demonstrators tried to tear down barriers erected outside Parliament – just blocks from the summit site – but police repelled them with water hoses and tear gas. However, away from the main square, near which many shops remained open, the situation remained mostly calm.
As in other countries, some groups, particularly the most ultra- and Eurosceptic ones, have tried to capitalize on the protests, particularly using them to attack the EU's environmental policies. Representatives of Vox, who already showed a banner at the first demonstration in Brussels a week ago, were also very present this Thursday at the central point of the protest, where the vice president of the regional government of Castile and León, Juan García-Gallardo, was present , also present. , by Vox. The day before, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose veto of financial aid to Ukraine in December forced the other 26 heads of state and government to meet again today, took the opportunity to walk between the first tractors arriving in Brussels to affirm that his government is the best that stands “on the side of the voice of the people”.
It's better to leave the car at home
In the run-up to the agricultural blockade, local authorities advised that cars be left parked during the day, although parts of local public transport are also severely affected due to the protests and the special summit. Since Wednesday evening, the tractors had begun to enter Brussels, although most of them did so in the early hours of the morning, waking up numerous residents with their engines, horns and even sirens, who did not hesitate to show the unusual images of the train tractors in the social media. The large vehicles that circulate through the streets of the Belgian capital.
The anger of the farmers in front of the European Parliament could also be felt at the headquarters of the European Council, a few hundred meters away, where the EU heads of state and government meet.
“It wasn't easy to get there, but it was a pleasant ride,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas joked about the collapse of the Belgian capital. On a more serious note, his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo, who has seen since the beginning of the week protests organized in the countryside similar to those already experienced in France since last week, urged that this Thursday's event also give rise to Discussion gives field topic. “We need to be able to discuss this in council because the concerns they have are completely legitimate,” he told reporters upon his arrival. “Climate change is a key priority for our societies and we must ensure that our farmers are allies in this (…) and that they can be part of the discussion,” he claimed.
Bonfire in front of the headquarters of the European Parliament, this Thursday in Brussels. YVES HERMAN (Portal)
The European Commission had a gesture with farmers this Wednesday. He has responded to one of their complaints and proposed a temporary lifting of the requirement to set aside a minimum percentage of land each year. The EU executive's proposal, which must be approved by member states, comes at a time when protests in the agricultural sector are spreading from country to country. The initiative coincides with another that is unlikely to be well received in the industry: the one-year extension of the tariff exemption on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine and Moldova, which has so angered farmers in neighboring countries.
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