Dissatisfaction with EU agricultural policy: Polish farmers' protests are expanding

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Polish farmers: blockades against EU agricultural policy

Photo: Dominika Zarzycka / SOPA Images / IMAGO

They have been protesting against the EU's agricultural policy for months, and now Polish farmers have once again blocked the border crossings with Ukraine. The farmers' blockades have led to long queues of trucks at the border with Ukraine. On the Polish side of the Medyka crossing, trucks were stuck in a 42-kilometer-long traffic jam on Saturday afternoon, local police said, according to the PAP news agency. The waiting time until clearance is 14 days.

According to customs, there were 550 trucks at the time before the Dorohusk crossing. There you have to expect a waiting time of more than ten days. At the Korczowa and Hrebenne crossings the waiting time was five days each.

But Polish farmers are no longer content with road blockades. Last week, farmers dumped Ukrainian grain from trucks onto the ground at a border crossing. Andriy Sadowy, mayor of the western Ukrainian metropolis of Lviv, condemned the action on Telegram as vile and shameful. »Ukrainians literally water the fields where this grain grows with their blood. Harvesting wheat in a field where a war has taken place is like the work of a deminer." Sadowyj called the Polish farmers "pro-Russian provocateurs."

But the tone continues to intensify. In Wroclaw last Thursday, Polish farmers threw rotten eggs in front of the European Commission representation and a voivodship building, writes the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Burning car tires and smoke bombs were also reported.

Moderate tones from the Czech Republic

This Thursday there will be a joint protest by farmers from Latvia to Romania, in which the Czech farmers also want to take part. In the neighboring Polish country, however, the tone is much more moderate: "The action will be more symbolic, we don't want to block traffic or restrict anyone," said the President of the Czech Chamber of Agriculture, Jan Doležal, according to "SZ". The protest is expressly not directed at the government in Prague, but rather at EU policy. The duty-free import of Ukrainian products in particular is causing problems for EU farmers.

Polish farmers are protesting across the country against EU agricultural policy, but also against the import of cheap agricultural products from Ukraine. The protests are scheduled to continue until March 10th.