Hundreds of farmers descended upon Brussels on Monday, clashing with police, spraying officers with manure, and pelting EU buildings with eggs as they protested outside an agricultural summit being held in the city.
Chaotic scenes broke out in Brussels with farmers protesting the European Union’s green agenda and plans to ink a free trade deal with the South American ‘Mercosur’ bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which farmers in Europe fear will serve to further undercut their prices and threaten their ability to stay in business.
As hundreds of tractors amassed in the de-facto EU capital, including farmers from as far away as Italy and Spain, police in Brussels attempted to erect barricades to block the farmers from entering areas of the city centre.
Violent clashes ensued, with farmers using their tractors to bash through the barricades, throwing bottles and makeshift projectiles at officers while others sprayed police with manure, set tyres and straw on fire, and covered the European Union’s Lex building with eggs.
In turn, the Brussels police deployed tear gas and water cannons against the protesters, Het Laatste Nieuws reports.
Commenting on the outbreak of violence, the spokesman for the Farmers’ Forum Tijs Boelens said: “The riots here today are the result of a European agricultural policy that always opts against economic security in our sector… If you sow misery, you will reap rage.”
“I am not in favour of the riots, there is a more friendly atmosphere here. But at the same time, it is the result of European mismanagement; farmers are always used as currency to secure economic deals for industry in Europe.
“With this, we do not create food security but rather are ensuring that our own farmers have to live in permanent economic stress. We are here today at the European Quarter because we want to make our point clear to European leaders: we must choose food security and food sovereignty. Neoliberalism’s time is up.”
The Flemish Boerenbond farmers’ union distanced themselves from the riots on Monday, saying that it is “not our way of campaigning”
“The protest actions in Flanders have always been serene and safe in recent weeks. What we see in Brussels today is in stark contrast . That is not our way of taking action. These organizations and individuals do this on their own responsibility,” spokeswoman Elisabeth Mertens said.
“For us, it is about the message that we want to give here today, which is to call on European policymakers to recognize the strategic importance of the agricultural sector,” she added, explaining that European farmers are put under strict regulation by Brussels and therefore are undercut by free trade deals with countries with lower standards.
The issues facing farmers in Europe, such as the high cost of fuel, hefty taxes, excessive paperwork mandated by bureaucracies, the war in Ukraine, free trade orthodoxy, and environmentalist regulations are set to be key drivers in the upcoming European Parliament elections in June. Alongside mass migration and the fledgling economies of Europe, the pushback against the green agenda is likely to benefit populist parties, who are already projected to make significant gains.
The anger at globalist governance from farmers was also witnessed in France over the weekend, with enraged farmers breaching security to enter the Paris Agricultural Show on Sunday to confront French President Emmanuel Macron, accusing him of caring more for the people of Ukraine than his own farmers. Macron, in turn, attempted to blame the anger among the farmers on “political manipulation” from the so-called far-right of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN).
National Rally President Jordan Bardella, who attended the Agricultural Show on Monday, said: “The Macronists have pursued a policy of degrowth for seven years, submitting to the objectives of the Green Pact, which advocates a reduction in agricultural yields and the number of livestock. Those who defend French agricultural power are the RN.”
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