Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo came on Friday, February 2, to look at the square in front of the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels, which had been destroyed by protests. A British newspaper reported this The Guardian.
“The smell of charred earth, gasoline and burnt rubber hovers over Place Luxembourg in front of the European Parliament in Brussels,” correspondents describe the aftermath of the farmers’ protests that took place on February 1.
Protesters also toppled a 200-kilogram bronze statue of a 19th-century worker holding a gear. The statue was found among the burning pallets and was removed by workers. As noted, the Belgian prime minister arrived at the square just at the moment when the bronze statue was being taken away.
Referring to yesterday's meeting with farmer representatives, he said many of their concerns were “well founded”.
The day before, in Brussels, protesting farmers lit bonfires in front of the European Parliament building on the day of an emergency summit of European Union leaders, where the issue of allocating €50 billion in financial assistance to Ukraine was discussed. In addition, Belgian farmers blocked the country's four main highways.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on February 2 that he could not sleep the night before the EU summit in Brussels because of the honking of protesters' tractors outside his windows. According to him, about 200 tractors stopped under the windows, honking their horns all night and waking them up every ten minutes with the ringing of tape recorders.
Protests are taking place in many European Union countries. Farmers are dissatisfied with rising prices for fuel and fertilizers, competition from abroad and new environmental standards of the European Union.
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