Farmers’ protests spread to Spain, Italy and Poland

FARMERS in Spain and Poland demonstrated yesterday as part of ongoing protests against European Union farming policies and to demand measures to combat production cost hikes, reduced profits and unfair competition from non-EU countries.

The actions follow similar protests in France, Greece and other EU member nations in recent weeks.

Farmers complain that the 27-nation bloc’s environmental and other policies are a financial burden and make their products more expensive than foreign imports.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has made some concessions to farmers over the last few weeks, including shelving plans to halve the use of pesticides and other dangerous substances.

In Spain, farmers maintain that a law aimed at guaranteeing wholesale major supermarket buyers pay fair prices for their goods is not being enforced while consumer prices soar.

Yesterday’s protests centred around the northern cities of Oviedo, Pamplona and Zaragoza, with tractors clogging several city streets and commuter roads, many going overnight.

A group not affiliated with Spain’s three main farming organisations called for farmers to move on Madrid at midnight for a protest today near the headquarters of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist party. The demonstrations are expected to continue over the coming weeks with a major protest being organised in the capital for February 21. Media reports linked many protests to conservative and right-wing groups. Police said 20 people were arrested.

In Poland, farmers angered especially by imports of cheap grain, milk and other produce from Ukraine, drove tractors across the country to slow down traffic and block major roads, some displaying signs that read “EU Policy is Ruining Polish Farmers”.

Access roads to border crossings with Ukraine in Hrebenne and Dorohusk, in the east, were blocked by tractors. In the western city of Poznan, police estimated some 1,400 tractors entered the streets and reached the office of the regional governor. Protesters lit flares there and placed a coffin, symbolising the death of Polish agriculture, as well as a manure-filled wheelbarrow with a EU flag stuck in it. No violence was reported.

Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski said he understood the grievances and he would talk to the farmers, who said they were also protesting on behalf of Polish consumers. Deputy prime minister Wladyslaw

Kosiniak-Kamysz called on the EU commissioner for agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, Poland’s former agriculture minister, to resign. There was no immediate reaction Mr from Wojciechowski.

“The protest is directed against the policy of the European Union, against the Green Deal and against the policy that allows for an uncontrolled inflow of farming produce from Ukraine,” Adrian Wawrzyniak, spokesman for the Solidarity Union of Individual Farmers, told reporters.

In Italy, farmers ran tractors in front of the Rome’s Colosseum to demand changes in European Union farming policies and measures to combat production cost hikes.

Farmers are concerned the EU’s Green Deal, which calls for limiting the use of chemicals and limiting green gas emissions, will result in a reduction in production and income.

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