This February 2, one day after the measures promised by French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, farmers blocking roads across the country began to lift traffic obstructions. However, protesters warn that the Government must still fulfill its promises, in the face of protests, due to the high production costs and bureaucracy that affect the sector. In contrast, farm workers in Belgium are intensifying their protest and this Friday they blocked the border between their nation and the Netherlands.
While in France farmers are beginning to lift the blockades, on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands the protest is just beginning.
Throughout French territory, protesters are gradually clearing the roads this February 2, in a vote of confidence in the measures announced by the Government a day before, but they warn that they want “concrete” changes.
“We are not 100% satisfied. It is true that measures have been taken, it is always better than nothing, but we are not going to let things continue like this (…) We were also waiting for the written measures, because we are used to there being a lot of nice words , but they are not respected, so you have to be careful,” Guillaume Chantereau, a cereal producer and chicken farmer, in Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, in the north of the country, told Reuters.
After more than two weeks of mobilizations and while the anger of farm workers spreads to other European countries, on Thursday, February 1, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced some relief measures for the agricultural sector.
Among them, Attal promised 150 million euros in fiscal and social aid for this yearand what he called safeguard clauses, including one that vetoes “the import of fruits and vegetables treated with pesticides that are prohibited” in Europe. “It is the symbol of a new policy, a mirror clause,” he said.
Likewise, Paris promised scrap plans to increase diesel tax contributions of tractors, relax pesticide regulationsa pause on new set-aside rules and more imported food safety checks.
Farm workers protest the increase in energy costs, the rise in prices of inputs such as fertilizers, the increase in imports into the bloc of foods that are cheaper than those grown in the EU and the increasingly strict rules of the 27-nation bloc for the sector, in the midst of environmental measures, but which the protesters describe as bureaucratic and “suffocating.”
“The roadblocks are being lifted region by region. Some are still standing, but little by little, during the morning, they will be removed,” Jerome Despey, a senior official of the National Federation of Trade Unions, told 'franceinfo' radio. of Farmers (FNSEA).
The return of farmers to their workplaces represents a respite for Emmanuel Macron's Government, but the prime minister acknowledged this Friday that there is still work to do. “The farmers have not given us a free hand for eternity,” Attal stressed.
French farmers stressed that their country's government must now act quickly and fulfill its promises.
Farmers block the border between Belgium and the Netherlands
Inspired by the protests of its neighbors in France and after similar mobilizations in Germany and Poland, at the end of 2023, the blockades began in Belgium last Monday, January 29, but this Friday, February 2, the blockades were extended to the border between the Belgian territory and the Netherlands.
The border crossing towards Antwerp, the second largest city in Belgium and home to the second largest port in Europe, is one of the blocked crossings.
This new demonstration began less than a day after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, met with farmers' representatives, in an attempt to calm discontent.
The meeting took place just shortly after the end of the EU summit, which took place while hundreds of tractors blocked the streets adjacent to the European Parliament, in the center of Brussels, and some protesters set fire to barricades.
In addition, Belgian and Dutch protesters continue to prevent trucks from entering or leaving the port of Zeebrugge, which handles imports of cars and some fresh goods from the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo urged his farmers to lift the blockades. A still unsuccessful call.
Spain and Poland would join the mobilizations
Protests and huge road blockades in connected European nations could spread even further. Farm workers in Spain indicated that they would join the mobilizations “in the coming weeks,” although on February 2, a small demonstration was recorded with around thirty trucks between the towns of Azuaga and Llerena, in the west of the country.
Quickly, the Government of Pedro Sánchez tried to resolve a situation similar to that of its neighbors and this Friday the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, held a meeting with the agricultural associations COAG, Asaja and UPA.
But the meeting failed to calm spirits and the field workers indicated that they will continue with the call. Like their colleagues from other EU countries, in Spanish territory these citizens mainly demand to reduce production costs and bureaucratic procedures, which they consider “excessive”, in order to be able to work the land, amidst the push for the Union. European Union to address climate change.
Meanwhile, in Poland, the Solidarity farmers union plans a general strike starting next Friday, February 9, with a blockade of border crossings between their country and Ukraine.
“We have run out of patience. Brussels' position is unacceptable for our entire agricultural community (…) Furthermore, the passivity of the Polish authorities and the declarations of cooperation with the European Commission, regarding the import of agricultural and food products of Ukraine leave us no choice but to declare a general strike,” the union said in a statement.
In Greece, where there is also discontent in the agricultural sector, the government announced that it would extend for one year a special tax rebate on diesel to help support farmers, whose demands also include cheaper electricity and faster compensation for losses. crops and livestock lost to floods.
With Reuters, AP and local media
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