Farmers from across Europe took to their tractors again, swarming Brussels and blockading the border between France and Spain to firmly plant their opposition to the globalist Green Deal agenda in the minds of voters as they head to the polls for the European Parliament elections this week.
“Farmers of the world, unite!” was the slogan as tractors shut down the Franco-Spanish border on both sides of the Pyrenees starting on Monday, according to Le Figaro, which reported that around 200 to 300 French farmers joined the protest which blocked at least seven crossings before disbanding on Tuesday.
Spain’s ABC newspaper reports that the farmers demanded that the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) be “centred on the farmer”, rather than seeing subsidies flow to multinational growers or large landowners.
Farmers use tractors to block the AP7 highway during a protest over food security on the French-Spanish border in Le Perthus, France, on Monday, June 3, 2024. The grains industry was disrupted earlier this year during demonstrations led by French farmers highlighting rising costs, stringent regulations and cheap imports. Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg via Getty Images
They also argued that tariffs and taxes should be levied against cheap foreign imports to protect domestic farmers from unfair competition from countries that do not have the same level of environmental or labour restrictions.
While the protest at the border concluded on Tuesday, French farmer Jérôme Bayle said the demonstration was a “successful show of force” ahead of the EU elections this week and the groups gathered vowed to return to their tractors following the Autumn harvest if Brussels does not address their demands.
Meanwhile, Brussels was once again flooded with tractors on Tuesday, with police in the Belgian capital and seat of power for the EU saying that at least 500 tractors were counted entering the city. Protesters claimed that it was as many as 1,000.
Explaining the motivation for the demonstration on Tuesday, a German farmer in Brussels told Het Nieuwsblad: “Politicians have completely lost the connection with the field. They only come away with more paperwork and fancy ideas. The prices we get are far too low and many farmers have disappeared in Germany since the 1950s. Local farmers must not disappear. They know everything about the environment, the weather and so on. They don’t know that in industrial agriculture.”
A woman sits on a bin as demonstrators hold a banner reading « stop the green communism » during a demonstration called by Farmers Defence Force to protest against European regulations, in Brussels, on June 4, 2024. (Photo by Simon Wohlfahrt / AFP) (Photo by SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Images)
A Polish farmer told the Flemish paper: “Brussels is the cause of our problems. We want changes to the Green Deal. We want freedom in production. Europe gives us too many restrictions every day, every month. The daily negotiations with Polish politicians have not yielded anything yet.”
A Dutch farmer said: “We are protesting against the new agricultural policy, the Green Deal. That deal is making the future increasingly difficult for young farmers. We want to make a small statement just before the elections. We want to make it clear to citizens what they should do. vote, if they want their products to remain affordable in the store.”
The farmer protests, which emerged in earnest in 2019 in The Netherlands in opposition to an EU-led agenda to shut down thousands of farmers to comply with Brussels’ biodiversity and nitrogen emissions targets, have since spread to every corner of the European Union, with tractor protests being staged from Portugal to Poland. With widespread popularity among the European people, the protests have already played a major role in shaping the future of the bloc, including the landslide election for pro-farmer populist Geert Wilders in the Netherlands last November.
Farmers groups have also forced concessions from local governments, such as in France, as well as from Brussels, with the EU’s “Nature Restoration” plan — which would have classified 20 per cent of the bloc’s land as environmentally protected, likely forcing the closure of thousands of farms — being suspended in March amid pressure from farmers groups.
However, many of the complaints from farmers, including onerous regulations, endless paperwork, environmental restrictions, and unfair competition as a result of globalist trade policies, remain.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – JUNE 04: European farmers gather in front of the Atomium with tractors and block the street to protest against the European Union’s (EU) environmental policies and cheap imports of agricultural products in Brussels, Belgium on June 04, 2024. (Photo by Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Speaking before the gathering of farmers in Brussels on Tuesday, MEP Tom Vandendriessche of the populist Flemish Vlaams Belang party said that the EU’s Green Deal is a “disaster for our farmers and a product of climate hysteria… they are busy with the end of the world, while hard-working Flemish people are busy trying to make it to the end of the month.”
Vandendriessche said that people around Europe are rallying to the cause of the farmers, noting that it is not “green” to import food produced in countries on the other side of the world often without any consideration for the environment.
“This agreement is a Green Scam. We are being fooled. We do not want to become dependent on countries on the other side of the world. Being self-sufficient is crucial for our future. We must protect ourselves against unfair competition.”
“We bring a clear message, a message of hope. We’ve had enough. The elections will cause a change. We want our countries back, our freedom back. Use your power!”