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Farmers from Poland on the motorway towards Frankfurt/Oder (on Sunday): protest against agricultural policy

Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa

A blockade by Polish farmers on the motorway near Frankfurt (Oder) is expected to lead to traffic delays in Brandenburg until Monday afternoon.

The police called on hauliers in particular to avoid the A12 motorway if possible.

You should use the Pomellen border crossing on Autobahn 11 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Forst border crossing on Autobahn 13.

Even those traveling by car should take routes other than the A12.

Numerous trucks, cars and buses had to take diversions on Sunday because tractors were parked for miles on the Polish side.

In Poland, farmers had formed a convoy with tractors on Autobahn 2 - the extension of the A12 on the Polish side - at the Świecko border crossing.

They turned around and stopped in the opposite direction.

In Frankfurt (Oder) truck drivers were asked to turn around at the city bridge - which leads to Poland.

But there was no traffic chaos in Brandenburg.

On the A12, the police allowed traffic to exit before the border at the Frankfurt (Oder)-Mitte junction.

That's why no traffic rolled directly across the border on the A12.

In Poland, truck traffic was redirected to the S3 expressway at the Jordanowo motorway junction, according to the motorway administration.

The trucks should then drive via the DK32 to Gubin or Guben on the German side.

Motorists were redirected from the Świecko junction to the national road DK29, which leads northwest to Frankfurt (Oder).

On Sunday evening there was also a blockade with tractors, vans and trucks on the German side on the city bridge in Frankfurt (Oder).

According to the police, there were no major traffic jams in Brandenburg on Sunday.

In Germany, farmers are protesting primarily against the planned subsidy cuts for agricultural diesel.

Unidentified people boycott grain transport from Ukraine

The protests by Polish farmers that have been going on for weeks are directed against EU agricultural policy, but also against the import of cheap agricultural products from Ukraine.

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine two years ago, Brussels suspended all import tariffs and quotas on agricultural products from Ukraine to help the country economically.

Recently, the protests by Polish farmers had intensified.

They want to prevent cheaper Ukrainian grain from reaching the domestic market.

In the past few days, previously unknown perpetrators in Poland gained access to several wagons of a freight train and spilled the agricultural products transported in them.

In the incident in Kotomierz in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, corn was scattered onto the tracks from eight wagons, a police spokeswoman told the PAP agency on Sunday.

It initially remained unclear exactly when the crime occurred.

It wasn't the first incident of its kind.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Olexander Kubrakow wrote to X that 160 tons of Ukrainian agricultural products were destroyed on the way to the port city of Gdansk (Danzig).

“How long will the government (in Warsaw) and the Polish police allow this vandalism?” criticized the politician.

mmq/dpa