Angry farmers reshaping Europe
With ire toward EU rules growing, far right sees chance to make inroads
CURTAFOND, France — Gazing out from his 265-acre farm to the silhouetted Jura mountains in the distance, Jean-Michel Sibelle expounded on the intricate secrets of soil, climate and breeding that have made his chickens — blue feet, white feathers, red combs in the colors of France — the royalty of poultry.
The “poulet de Bresse” is no ordinary chicken. It was recognized in 1957 with a designation of origin, similar to that accorded a great Bordeaux wine. Moving from a diet of meadow bugs and worms to a mash of corn flour and milk in its final sedentary weeks, this revered Gallic bird acquires a unique muscular succulence. “The mash adds a little fat and softens the muscles formed in the fields to make the flesh moist and tender,” Sibelle explained with evident satisfaction.
But if this farmer seemed passionate about his chickens, he is also drained by harsh realities. Sibelle, 59, is done. Squeezed by European Union and national environmental regulations, facing rising costs and unregulated competition, he sees no further point in laboring 70 hours a week.
He and his wife, Maria, are about to sell a farm that has been in the family for more than a century. None of their three children wants to take over; they have joined a steady exodus that has seen the share of the French population engaged in agriculture fall steadily over the past century to about 2%.
“We are suffocated by norms to the point we can’t go on,” Jean-Michel Sibelle said.
Down on the European farm, revolt has stirred. The discontent, leading farmers to quit and to demonstrate, threatens to do more than change how Europe produces its food. Angry farmers are blunting climate goals. They are reshaping politics before elections for the European Parliament in June. They are shaking European unity against Russia as the war in Ukraine increases their costs.
“It’s the end of the world versus the end of the month,” Arnaud Rousseau, the head of the FNSEA, France’s largest farmers union, said in an interview. “There’s no point talking about farm practices that help save the environment if farmers cannot make a living. Ecology without an economy makes no sense.”
The turmoil has emboldened a far right that thrives on grievances and rattled a European establishment forced to make concessions. In recent weeks, farmers have blocked highways and descended on the streets of European capitals in a disruptive, if disjointed, outburst against what they call “existential challenges.” In a shed full of the ducks he raises, Jean-Christophe Paquelet said: “Yes, I joined the protests because we are submerged in rules. My ducks’ lives are short, but at least they have no worries.”
The challenges farmers cite include EU requirements to cut the use of pesticides and fertilizers, now partly dropped in light of the protests. Europe’s decision to open its doors to cheaper Ukrainian grain and poultry in a show of solidarity added to competitive problems in a bloc where labor costs already varied widely. At the same time, the EU has in many cases reduced subsidies to farmers, especially if they do not shift to more environmentally friendly methods.
German farmers have attacked Green party events. This month, they spread a manure slick on a highway near Berlin that caused several cars to crash, seriously injuring five people. Spanish farmers have destroyed Moroccan produce grown with cheaper labor. Polish farmers are enraged by what they see as unfair competition from Ukraine.
Ascendant far-right parties across the continent have seized on such anger three months before European Parliament elections. They portray it as another illustration of the confrontation between arrogant elites and the people, urban globalists and rooted farmers.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s anti-immigrant National Rally party, argues true exile “is not to be banished from your country, but to live in it and no longer recognize it.” Her young lieutenant, the charismatic Jordan Bardella, 28, who is leading the party’s election campaign, speaks of “punitive ecology” as he crisscrosses the countryside.