Everything to Know About Farm Unions' Protest of EU Green Policies
The Flemish Interest party set up a demonstration in the rolling fields south of Brussels ahead of the European Union's four-day election starting June 6th. The party's goal was clear: Decry how farmers could lose fertile land to "overbearing environmentalists" seeking to kill off their traditional way of life.
However, there have been mixed reactions to the demonstrations. Some groups shun the demonstrations, citing they want to avoid any prospect of violence even as they want their voices heard. Other groups claim they don't know what's happening, feeling caught in the middle.
Still, preparations for the June 4th demonstration have been ramping up ahead of the EU elections, which will take place from June 6th to 9th. Protesters are set to gather in Brussels before European citizens go to the polls.
Tractors Rumble in Streets Ahead of EU Polls
In a final push, militant agricultural groups and farm unions from more than half a dozen nations converged on Tuesday in a show of force in Brussels. Their primary objective was that the demonstration would sweep the progressive EU Green Deal off the table, giving farmers leeway to decide how to till their own land.
Here, too, the impact of the far right was evident, with representatives from various EU nations attending the demo that drew hundreds of tractors. Stories of discontent centered on limiting the use of pesticides and manure and forcing parts of productive farmland to be turned into pristine nature zones, benefiting birds and bees – and, eventually, the population.
Farmers traveled from Belgium, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands to participate in this three-day demonstration. Critically, more center parties, especially the Christian Democrats, seem to be wavering toward the right, with hundreds of tractors usually blocking essential economic lifelines of most of Europe's great cities like Madrid and Paris.
EU Green Deal Sparks Farmer Protests Amid Stricter Climate Laws
As climate change, with heat waves, droughts, fires and floods, began to increasingly wreak havoc, the European Union sought to enact tough laws as a part of its Green Deal pact to make the alliance climate-neutral by 2050. Studies show that agriculture accounts for over 10% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions come from carbon dioxide from vehicles, nitrous oxide in fertilizers and methane from cattle.
The EU has been the world's trendsetter for years, earning plenty of international pundits. However, increased greenhouse gas emissions have forced EU nations to seek tough measures; a case in point is the EU Green Deal, which railed in countless demonstrations citing bureaucratic interference.
The groundswell of defiance from the far right has driven many protestors to a level of farming militancy that hasn't been seen in decades, with the Dutch Farmers Defense Force calling its members "fighters." Therefore, it's no surprise that some demos have resulted in violence, even as Tuesday's match was intended to be the tipping point of the many months of protests.
Farming Groups Shun Brussels Protest Against EU Green Policies
In a turn of events, while the farmers' protests in Brussels earlier this year resulted in favorable concessions for the farmers, some farming groups aren't participating in the current demos. Copa-Cogeca and La Via Campesina are some of the more noticeable groups that didn't attend the demonstration despite being at prior protests.
A spokesperson for Via Campesina said they rejected the attempt by small groups with no concrete proposals to address the current farmers' crises. Instead, these groups intended to hijack farmer issues to push their own party interests.
Other mainstream farming groups also shunned the hundreds of farmers who drove their tractors into Brussels on June 6th. These farming groups claimed the protestors didn't reflect their members' concerns. However, a few days before the EU elections, farmers from the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, and Belgium traveled to Brussels to protest against the EU Green Policies, claiming that they undermined European farmers' competitiveness.
Some groups also acknowledged that the EU had already conceded to the farmers' demands. Therefore, there was no urgency to protest. Other groups sought to separate themselves from the hardline groups leading the protests, while others shared their concerns with the dominant big unions.
Currently, protestors have been given an edge of Brussels for their demonstrations, and the police have been deployed to prevent them from entering the heart of the city.
