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Farmers also showed their displeasure in front of the Colosseum in Rome
Photo: Gregorio Borgia/dpa
Farmers in Italy, Spain and Poland protested against the European Union's agricultural policy on Friday. Among other things, they criticize environmental regulations as a financial burden that makes their products more expensive than imports from third countries. Similar protests have taken place across the EU in recent weeks.
In Poland, where imports of cheap grain, milk and other products from Ukraine have caused particular anger, farmers drove tractors across the country to slow traffic and block major roads. An overview by the Solidarity union listed more than 260 planned protest actions. According to Ukrainian sources, protesting farmers also blocked the Medyka-Schegyni crossing on the border with Ukraine.
Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekierski said he understood the complaints and would talk to farmers. Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called on EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski - Poland's former agriculture minister - to resign. There was no immediate reaction from Wojciechowski.
"The protest is directed against the policies of the European Union, against the Green Deal and against the policy that allows an uncontrolled influx of agricultural products from Ukraine," said union spokesman Adrian Wawrzyniak. Farmers fear that the EU's Green Deal, which limits the use of chemicals and greenhouse gas emissions, will lead to losses. Farmers also believe that the EU requirement that four percent of agricultural land be dedicated to protecting biodiversity and the landscape will have a negative impact on their production.
In Italy, a small convoy of tractors moved through the historic center of Rome to the Colosseum, accompanied by police patrols. Farmers have been protesting peacefully outside Rome and across the country for days to express their dissatisfaction
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has repeatedly said that her right-wing government has already addressed some of farmers' key demands. But many of them feel neglected. A meeting was called for Friday afternoon between a delegation of farmers' associations and Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida. Many Italian farmers do not feel represented by the major industry associations.
Call for fair prices in Spain
In Spain, farmers staged similar actions on their fourth consecutive day of protests. In addition to EU policy, they criticize the lack of enforcement of a law that is intended to force wholesalers and supermarkets to pay fair prices.
Friday's protests were centered in the northern cities of Oviedo, Pamplona and Zaragoza, where tractors clogged several streets and commuter routes. In many places, farmers continued their protests overnight.
A group that is not part of Spain's three major farmers' associations has called on farmers to head to Madrid for a protest rally near the headquarters of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party at midnight on Saturday.
Demonstrations are expected to continue in the coming weeks, with a major demonstration being organized in the capital on February 21. Several Spanish media reports linked many of the protests to conservative and far-right groups. According to police, 20 people were arrested during this week's demonstrations.
dab/AP/dpa