On Monday, February 26, a new protest action by European farmers begins in Brussels.

Members of the main agricultural organizations in the south of Belgium will take part in it, local media report.

In particular, representatives of the Walloon Federation of Agriculture (FWA), the Federation of Young Farmers (FJA) and other associations intend to participate in the demonstration.

According to journalists, in recent weeks farmers have intensified demonstrations throughout Belgium and Europe as a whole.

Earlier, on February 22, EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said on the social network X (ex-Twitter) that good news awaits European farmers.

According to him, the European Commission has sent a document to the Council of Europe, the adoption of which will help reduce the administrative burden on farmers.

However, the unrest of farmers in Europe does not subside.

Growing discontent is resulting in clashes with law enforcement officers and heated discussions with politicians.

Thus, on February 24, at an agricultural exhibition in Paris, a very emotional dialogue took place between French President Emmanuel Macron and the assembled farmers.

One of the farmers who came to the exhibition was indignant that the authorities of the Fifth Republic spent “huge sums on Ukraine,” while farmers received crumbs from the state.

Macron tried to justify himself to the protesters, saying that investments in the country's agriculture are allegedly only increasing every year.

“Listen, I want to clarify this point regarding Ukraine.

The statistics we provided are military assistance, this includes weapons and so on.

We provided our maximum.

Along with this, the fact that we are investing in our own agriculture in the form of the Common Agrarian Policy and separately French investments is growing every year,” Macron said.

According to the French leader, the authorities of the Fifth Republic annually allocate over €10 billion in subsidies to workers in the agricultural sector.

However, the figures cited by the French president did not convince the protesters.

According to farmers, their farm income falls by 10% almost every year.

“No, but, excuse me, in other countries they are reducing investments in agriculture, but we have increased them, including aid.

So it’s not true,” Macron retorted.

According to French journalists, a very tense atmosphere reigned at the exhibition.

The participants did not hide their critical attitude towards the actions of the authorities, and a scuffle broke out between the police, members of the Republican Security Corps (CRS) and farmers.

Earlier, another high-profile incident occurred in Polish Silesia.

Local farmer Peter G., whom the media identified only by his first name, hung a banner on his tractor with an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to help restore order in Brussels and Ukraine.

In addition, a Polish farmer hung a USSR flag on his car.

Based on this fact, the local prosecutor's office opened a criminal case, accusing Peter of justifying “Russian aggression” in Ukraine and of publicly promoting communist ideology in connection with the use of the USSR flag.

Now the farmer faces five years in prison.

Let us remind you that European farmers have been protesting en masse since December last year due to a reduction in state support for the agricultural sector, the introduction of stricter environmental standards and preferences for foreign agricultural producers, including Ukrainian ones.

In addition, on January 31, the European Commission proposed exempting Ukrainian agricultural products from customs duties for another year.

After this, on February 1, when an extraordinary EU summit was held in Brussels to discuss financial assistance to Ukraine, more than 1 thousand farmers arrived in the capital of Belgium on their tractors.

Farmers blocked the so-called Euroquarter, highways and food warehouses.

Large-scale actions do not stop in Poland, including on the border with Ukraine.

Since February 9, the Solidarity trade union has been holding a general strike of farmers.

Farmers fear that the import and transit of Ukrainian agricultural goods will bankrupt their farms.

As the Minister of Community Development of Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine Alexander Kubrakov stated on the social network X, 160 tons of Ukrainian grain, which was in transit to other countries, were destroyed in Poland.

According to him, this is the fourth case of “vandalism at Polish railway stations.”

He asked the Polish government and police how long they would allow this to continue.

According to local media, the incident occurred in the area of ​​​​the village of Kotomerz near Bydgoszcz: unknown persons opened eight carriages of the train and poured corn out of it.

The case is being investigated by local law enforcement.



The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on the incident in her Telegram channel, emphasizing that it is the West that is responsible for the destruction of global food security, despite accusations from the United States of the alleged responsibility of the Russian side for this issue.


“Perhaps, given that Warsaw is in NATO, Washington will stop talking about food security, Russia’s alleged responsibility and the supposedly saving role of the West in this matter?

It is the West that is destroying world food security in all ways: from speculation on stock exchanges to contamination of lands by British shells with depleted uranium, from the unrestrained use of GMOs on Ukrainian soil to the destruction of cargo with grain,” Zakharova noted.

RT discussed with experts the growing political tension in Europe and the prospects for further growth of protests by farmers due to the patronage of Ukraine by Brussels and the authorities of some EU member countries.

  • European farmers protests

  • © Lukas Kabon/Anadolu via Getty Images

— How great is the dissatisfaction of European farmers with Brussels’ policies and support for Ukraine?

Senior Researcher at the Center for Comparative and Political Studies at IMEMO RAS Alexander Kamkin:

— The ongoing protests of farmers in Europe are the result of a kind of cumulative effect.

For two years, European bureaucrats and authorities of EU member countries, virtually without regard to the opinions of taxpayers, have been devoting billions of dollars for economic and military assistance to Ukraine.

And all this time, the EU economy has been suffering from the energy crisis and declining production.

These negative processes naturally affected agriculture.

Ultimately, a significant reduction in purchases of Russian natural gas, which is used in the production of mineral fertilizers, also had an impact.

Against this background, European officials are seeking to reduce subsidies to the agricultural sector.

After this, the farmers lost their nerve; they can no longer tolerate this situation.

Therefore, in recent weeks we have been seeing increasingly desperate protests both in the east of the EU - in Poland, where farmers are, in principle, extremely dissatisfied with the presence of a powerful agricultural sector in Ukraine, and in the west - in France, whose market has been flooded with cheap Ukrainian goods.

Many media outlets drew attention to the incident with a Polish farmer addressing Putin.

But, most likely, this was trolling by European bureaucrats.

True, now the farmer faces prison.

This is perhaps the best demonstration of the state of affairs with freedom of speech in Europe regarding its policy in Ukraine.

Senior Researcher at the Center for European Studies, IMEMO RAS, Vladimir Olenchenko:

— The conversation between farmers and Macron and the clashes with the police at the exhibition in Paris are a clear illustration of the level of discontent among local farmers.

Due to the crisis in the EU economy and the imposition of strict environmental standards, farmers are forced to raise prices.

In turn, the buyer begins to save and tries to purchase the cheapest possible foreign products, including Ukrainian ones.

If nothing changes, many European farms will really go bankrupt.

However, the European Commission is not going to cancel the decision on duty-free import of Ukrainian goods, which could reduce the intensity of passions and reduce the irritation of farmers.

In essence, the national authorities are betraying the interests of their farmers.

For example, the governments of France and Germany are reducing budget support for the agricultural sector through a variety of tax and financial mechanisms.

But farmers are not stupid people; they understand perfectly well that at their expense the authorities of European states are trying to maintain the Kiev regime. 

— Can and are Brussels and the authorities of European countries ready to soften their policies towards their farmers?

Alexander Kamkin:

— European officials are infinitely far from taxpayers who are tired of being an ATM for Ukraine.

In addition, for EU farmers, Ukrainian producers with their cheap products are strong competitors.

But the leadership of European countries will not make serious concessions to farmers.

The tactics of the European bureaucrats now is to hold out until the sowing season, when the new agricultural season begins and farmers will not be able to rally so violently.

Chief Researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Mezhevich:

“The root of the problem is that the EU authorities have put the issue of supporting Ukraine above the interests of their taxpayers.

They thought that the voter would endure the serious costs that aid to Kyiv entails.

Yes, the European voter is inert in his political preferences, but he is not ready to put up with a drop in living standards.

  • Farmer protests in the EU

  • © AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaer

In addition, farmers in Europe have powerful trade unions - and since the end of last year they have been making it clear that they will not allow themselves to be robbed.

If a Polish farmer asks Putin to intervene in the situation and hangs up the Soviet flag, this demonstrates the highest form of discontent.

I think that this person, of course, does not have much sympathy for our country, but by his action he decided to demonstrate that he hates Brussels and Ukraine more than Russia.

Therefore, I do not yet see any reason to reduce the protest activity of farmers in Europe.

In the current conditions, some concessions may be made to farmers, but they will be insignificant.

Without the cessation of aid to Ukraine, neither Brussels nor the authorities of European countries will have enough resources to satisfy the demands of representatives of the agricultural sector.

In addition, the protests we have seen in recent months could be the prelude to other mass protests throughout 2024.