Peasant protests broke out across Europe.The reason is as follows

CNN
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Farmers have been protesting across Europe over a long list of grievances ranging from environmental regulations to excessive red tape, filling roads with tractors, blocking ports and hurling eggs at the European Parliament.

“We can no longer make a living from this profession,” one of the affected farmers in Paris told CNN.

Some of the most dramatic protests took place in France, but similar actions have taken place in many countries including Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland, Greece, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Agriculture accounts for just 1.4% of the European Union’s GDP, according to the latest figures, but protests in Eastern Europe last year over cheap imports from Ukraine (which saw prolonged blockades at border crossings) shows how farmers, as a group, can cause great havoc.

Governments and the EU are now under pressure to quell new demonstrations.

CNN is taking a closer look at the factors involved.

What is happening and where?

Farmer protests have hit the heart of the European Union this week, spilling into Brussels on Thursday as leaders hold a major summit on Ukraine. Setting up camp outside the Capitol, they dropped eggs, honked their horns and started fires.

Belgian farmers have targeted the Dutch border crossings of Zandvliet, Meer and Postel, causing delays.

In France, farmers blocked major roads leading to the cities of Paris, Lyon and Toulouse. Dozens of farmers set up tents and lit fires to stay warm as they tried to cut off routes to the French capital.

At least 91 people were arrested on Wednesday for disrupting traffic and causing damage near the Rungis market in south Paris, a key food distribution hub, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported. But other demonstrators were less hostile, with some farmers handing out fresh pain au chocolat to police in a Paris suburb.

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

Also this week in Greece, tractors marched into the second city of Thessaloniki on Thursday to block major routes through the city.

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

Last month, German cities were crippled by thousands of farmers braving subzero temperatures to rally, creating a dire situation for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government.

Massive roadblocks spread to cities from east to west, including Hamburg, Cologne, Bremen, Nuremberg and Munich, with up to 2,000 tractors registered at each protest.

The protests came as farmers from Eastern European countries including Poland, Romania and Bulgaria demonstrated against cheap grain imports from Ukraine that are driving down domestic prices and hurting sales for local producers. This is a reflection of last year’s protests.

Anger over economic, regulatory and environmental policies unites many protests, but there are also country-specific grievances.

Farmers in the region say energy, fertilizer and transportation costs are rising, especially in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine. In addition, governments around the world are trying to reduce food prices, which are rising amid inflation.

According to Eurostat data, the prices farmers receive for their produce peaked in 2022 but have fallen since then, by an average of 9% from the third quarter of 2022 to the same period in 2023. It fell soon.

In France, government plans to phase out tax breaks for farmers on diesel fuel as part of a broader energy transition policy have also sparked outrage.

Cheap foreign imports are fanning the flames of discontent, with farmers claiming such products represent unfair competition.

Emmanuel Maté, a French farmer from Noisy-Ludignon, a small village in the Seine-et-Marne department, told CNN: These are the rules we are mandated to create. ”

Farmers, particularly in Eastern Europe, continue to complain about cheap agricultural imports from Ukraine, including grain, sugar and meat. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU exempted imports from Ukraine from quotas and tariffs.

Climate change is worsening the situation in many ways. Extreme weather events such as wildfires and droughts are increasingly having an impact on production.

Anger has also been directed at Brussels over the EU’s environmental goals. Renaud Foucart, a senior economics lecturer at Lancaster University in the UK, points to the European Green Deal as the main source of tension.

The agreement aims to introduce measures such as a carbon tax, bans on pesticides, nitrogen emissions controls and water and land use restrictions.

Foucart said farmers were trying to postpone Green Deal regulations for as long as possible. “So they want to further postpone any carbon tax efforts or any attempts to reduce pesticides.”

He points out that each European country has its own concerns.

“Germany was so focused on diesel that they started taxing diesel for tractors. A specific issue in the Netherlands was around taxing nitrogen, which affects industrial production of pigs and chickens. It’s a very interesting case because Poland is at the forefront of providing military aid to Ukraine, but at the same time Polish farmers are so angry that they’re closing their borders to prevent Ukrainian grain from reaching Poland.”

At EU level, farmers won a compromise from Brussels on January 31, when a postponement of rules requiring land to be set aside to promote soil health and biodiversity was announced.

The European Commission has proposed an exemption for EU farmers from requirements that would allow them to maintain a minimum occupancy of land while maintaining associated support payments.

The European Commission also announced the extension of the suspension of import duties on Ukrainian exports for another year until June 2025.

At the government level, Berlin partially withdrew its plans to cut diesel subsidies last month. The government has watered down its original plan, saying it will maintain the car tax exemption for agricultural vehicles and phase in the reduction of diesel tax breaks over three years. But many farmers want a complete reversal.

Greece has announced a one-year extension of special tax rebates on agricultural diesel, in response to demands from farmers who lost crops and livestock in devastating floods.

France this week announced a series of measures against farmers in response to the protests. Newly appointed French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has pledged to protect “food sovereignty” and increased checks on food imports that “do not respect our rules at European and French level” to protect farmers from unfair competition. Then he said.

Attal also announced that 150 million euros ($162 million) would be allocated to livestock farmers “permanently starting this year in taxes and social support.”

There are signs that France’s measures are working, with some lockdowns being lifted after two major trade unions called for them to be lifted. But protests continue elsewhere.

Although the government has granted concessions, some farmers say they are not enough and are calling for continued action.

The protests have also fueled a backlash against the EU ahead of European elections in June.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has defended the EU’s goal of reaching net zero by 2050. But she faces pressure from her own centre-right party to water down environmental laws.

Europe’s far-right parties hope to gain an electoral advantage and may exploit farmers’ discontent for their own political gain.

This has already been seen in Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) took part in protests and expressed solidarity with farmers.

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

Last March, a Dutch populist party overcame a wave of local anger to win a major election. The Peasants’ Citizen Movement or BoerburgerBeweging (BBB) ​​was born out of mass demonstrations against the government’s environmental policies. It is currently the largest party in the Dutch Senate.