Farmers’ protests across Europe linked to dissatisfaction over Ukraine: what to expect

Enraged farmers are staging protests across Europe, clogging streets with their tractors, blocking ports, and pelting the European Parliament with eggs over a long list of grievances – from environmental regulation to excessive bureaucracy.

“We are no longer making a living from our profession,” one angry farmer in Paris told CNN. While some of the most dramatic protests have taken place in France, similar actions have occurred in many countries, including Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland, Greece, Germany, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

According to the latest data, agriculture accounts for only 1.4% of the European Union’s GDP, but last year’s protests in Eastern Europe over cheap Ukrainian imports, accompanied by lengthy blockades at border crossings, show that farmers as a group are capable of causing serious disruptions.

Both national governments and the EU as a whole are now under pressure to suppress new demonstrations, CNN notes.

This week, farmers’ protests hit the heart of the European Union when they rolled through Brussels on Thursday, where leaders were holding a major summit on Ukraine. Setting up camp outside the parliament building, farmers threw eggs, honked horns, and lit bonfires.

Belgian farmers attacked border crossing points with the Netherlands in Zandvliet, Meer, and Postel, leading to delays.

In France, farmers blocked major highways leading to Paris, as well as to the cities of Lyon and Toulouse. Dozens of farmers set up tents and lit bonfires to keep warm, trying to block routes leading to the French capital.

At least 91 people were arrested on Wednesday for obstructing traffic and causing damage near the Rungis market south of Paris, a key food distribution center, reports CNN affiliate BFMTV. But other protesters were less hostile: some farmers handed out freshly baked chocolate pies to police in the suburbs of Paris.

One farmer, Hugo Oge, told CNN that the current system “makes a mockery of both farmers and consumers.”

Also this week, tractors in Greece on Thursday marched towards the country’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, aiming to block key routes within the city.

Images from Portugal show long lines of trucks parked near the Spanish border.

Last month, German cities were brought to a standstill by thousands of farmers who rallied despite low temperatures, exacerbating the suffering of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition.

Major traffic jams engulfed cities from east to west, including Hamburg, Cologne, Bremen, Nuremberg, and Munich – up to 2,000 tractors were registered for each protest.

The protests echo last year’s, when farmers in Eastern European countries, including Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, demonstrated against the impact of cheap Ukrainian grain imports, which lowered domestic prices and hit sales of local producers.

While anger over economic, regulatory, and environmental policy unites many protests, there are also complaints unique to each country.

Farmers across the EU say that costs for energy, fertilizers, and transport have risen, especially in light of the conflict in Ukraine. In addition, European governments are trying to lower rising food prices amid inflation.

Eurostat data shows that prices farmers receive for their agricultural products peaked in 2022 but have since been declining – on average by almost 9% from the third quarter of 2022 to the same period in 2023.

In France, the government’s plan to phase out tax breaks for farmers on diesel fuel as part of a broader energy transition policy also sparked anger.

Cheap imports from abroad have fanned the flames of discontent, as farmers claim such products represent unfair competition.

Emmanuel Mate, a French farmer from the small village of Noisy-Rudignon in Seine-et-Marne, told CNN: “We’re subject to enormous constraints and there are products coming in from outside Europe, that compete with us without having to apply the same rules that we’re obliged to in order to produce.”

Farmers, especially in Eastern Europe, continue to express dissatisfaction with cheap imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, including grain, sugar, and meat. The EU has lifted quotas and duties on Ukrainian imports in light of Kyiv’s conflict with Russia.

Climate change exacerbates the situation differently. Extreme weather events, such as wildfires and droughts, increasingly affect production.

Anger was also directed at Brussels over the EU’s environmental goals. Reno Fugar, a senior lecturer in economics at Lancaster University in England, points to the European “Green Deal” as a major source of tension.

The deal aims to introduce measures including a carbon emissions tax, bans on pesticides, nitrogen emissions limits, and restrictions on water and land use.

Reno Fugar says farmers are trying to delay the adoption of the “Green Deal” provisions as long as possible. “Thus, they want to further delay any attempts to tax carbon emissions, any attempts to reduce the amount of pesticides.”

He notes that each European country has its specific issues.

“In Germany, the main focus was on diesel fuel, so they started taxing diesel fuel for tractors. In the Netherlands, the specific issue was nitrogen taxation, which affects industrial pig and chicken production. Poland is a very interesting case because it was at the forefront of military support for Ukraine, but at the same time, Polish farmers are very angry and block the border to make sure Ukrainian grain does not enter Poland.”

At the EU level, farmers achieved a compromise from Brussels on January 31, when it was announced that the adoption of rules requiring them to allocate land for soil health and biodiversity conservation would be postponed.

The European Commission offered EU farmers an exemption from the requirement to maintain a minimum share of their lands fallow, allowing them to retain associated support payments.

The Commission also stated that it would extend the suspension of import duties on Ukrainian exports for another year, until June 2025.

At the government level, Berlin partially backed down from its plans to cut subsidies for diesel fuel last month. Softening its initial plan, the government stated that the exemption from vehicle tax for agricultural machinery would be maintained, and the reduction of tax breaks on diesel fuel would be phased in over three years. However, many farmers are calling for a complete repeal.

Greece announced that it would extend a special tax discount on agricultural diesel fuel for one year in response to calls from farmers who lost crops and livestock due to devastating flooding.

France this week announced a series of measures for farmers in light of the protests. Newly appointed French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal promised to protect “food sovereignty” and said France would strengthen checks on food imports “They are not paid enough, are choked by taxes and green rules and face unfair competition from abroad,” in an attempt to protect farmers from unfair competition, according to Reuters.

Attal also announced the allocation of 150 million euros ($162 million) to livestock farmers “as tax and social support, starting this year and continuing on a permanent basis.”

There are signs that the French measures are working – some blockades were lifted after two major unions called for an end to roadblocks. But in other places, protests continue, CNN notes.

Although governments have made concessions, some farmers say they do not go far enough and call for continued action.

The protests have also sparked a negative reaction against the EU ahead of the European Parliament elections in June.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defends the EU’s goal of achieving net zero by 2050. However, she faces pressure from her own center-right party, which is calling for a softening of “green” legislation.

European far-right parties hope to win the elections and may benefit from farmers’ discontent for their own political gain.

Farmers in Greece dump apples and chestnuts in Europe's latest agriculture protest.
Reminds me of previous German farmer demos against the "Milchquote", when they lead 1000s of liters milk into the canalisation as protest…https://t.co/NOxyateasv@euronews pic.twitter.com/ikXmfTjy2s

— Marion Friedl #ForUkraine #Boostered #PostVac (@marillion13) February 4, 2024

This has already been observed in Germany, where the far-right “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) participated in the protests and expressed solidarity with farmers.

And there is a precedent for protesting farmers doing more than just taking to the streets.

Last March, a Dutch populist party rode a wave of rural anger to achieve major electoral gains. The Farmer-Citizen Movement, or BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), grew out of mass demonstrations against the government’s environmental policy. Currently, CNN notes, it is the largest party in the Dutch Senate.