Tractors flood Brussels to show the fury of the countryside during the EU leaders' summit

Up to a thousand tractors occupy the European neighborhood of Brussels this Thursday, at the beginning of a demonstration that seeks to concentrate the anger of the countryside, expressed during the past weeks in several European countries with various actions, in a large protest before the institutions of the European Union in the Belgian capital. The demonstration, for which thousands of farmers from various countries are expected, takes place on the same day that the heads of State and Government of the Twenty-seven also meet in an extraordinary manner in Brussels. Although European leaders must discuss the entire aid package for Ukraine, rural discontent has already crept into their agenda.

“We demand the paralysis of laws. We can't take it anymore, every day a new norm is approved,” explains José María Castilla, representative in Brussels of Asaja, the Spanish agricultural association, two steps from the European Parliament, in a square surrounded by large tractors, most of them very new. . There are several bonfires in which old car tires are burned and groups of Italian farmers wearing yellow vests, a nod to the French protests of the first term against the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

“We ask for mirror clauses in trade agreements so that agricultural products from other countries meet the same requirements as ours. We do not reject phytosanitary requirements, but we want those who come to sell here to comply with them. And we also want dignity and respect,” adds the Asaja representative.

In the protests of European farmers who in recent weeks have staged blockades from Germany to France, Poland and Slovakia, different arguments have been put forward. But all of them, at some point, come together in an anger against the “incoherence of European policies” that is intended to be expressed forcefully throughout the day before the EU headquarters, as summarized by the organizers, including the Copa-organisation. Cogeca or the Spanish Asaja (Agrarian Youth-Farmers Association), in the past days.

Since early in the morning, the heavy agricultural vehicles were collapsing the main streets of the European neighborhood in an attempt to converge on Luxembourg Square in front of the European Parliament, the central point of the protest called by various European agricultural unions, where the first incidents began. early in the morning, with the demolition of a statue that prompted the police to intervene.

Farmers have thrown eggs and stones at the European Parliament and started fires near the building, Reuters reports. The protesters tried to tear down the barriers erected in front of Parliament – ​​a few blocks from where the summit was being held – but the police repelled them with water hoses. Police also fired tear gas.

Better to leave the car at home

Local authorities have advised leaving cars at home during the day, although public traffic is also severely disrupted, while the entrances to the capital suffer major traffic jams. The tractors had begun to enter Brussels since Wednesday night, although most of them did so during the early hours of the morning, waking up numerous residents with their engines, honking horns and even sirens, who did not hesitate to show the unusual images of the tractors on social networks. The large vehicles circulating through the streets of the Belgian capital. According to police estimates, up to a thousand of these vehicles are already concentrated in the Belgian capital.

The anger of the farmers in front of the European Parliament was also felt at the headquarters of the European Council, a few hundred meters away, where the heads of State and Government of the EU meet.

“It hasn't been easy to get there, but it has been a pleasant ride,” joked Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas about the collapse of the Belgian capital. More seriously, his Belgian counterpart, Alexander De Croo, who since the beginning of the week has seen how the countryside was organized in protests similar to those that France has already been experiencing since last week, urged that this Thursday's event also serve to talk about field theme. “We have to be able to discuss this in the Council because the concerns they have are perfectly legitimate,” he told reporters upon his arrival. “The climate transition is a key priority for our societies and we have to ensure that our farmers are allies in it (…) and that they can be part of the discussion,” he claimed.

The European Commission made a gesture with farmers this Wednesday. It has heeded one of his claims by proposing a temporary repeal of the requirement to leave a minimum percentage of land fallow each year. The proposal from the EU Executive, which must receive the approval of the Member States, comes at a time when protests in the agricultural sector are spreading from country to country. The initiative coincides with another that most likely will not be well received in the sector: the extension for one year of the exemption of tariffs on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine and Moldova, which has so irritated farmers in neighboring countries.

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