Thousands of Polish farmers protested outside the prime minister’s office on Wednesday, burning tyres and throwing firecrackers, demanding an end to cheap imports and environmental regulations.
Protesters blocked roads in other parts of the country. Tractors on the outskirts of Warsaw are prevented from entering the city.
Farmers across the European Union are calling for changes to the restrictions imposed on them by the Green Deal climate change plan. The protesters are also calling for the reinstatement of customs duties on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, cancelled after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The protests threaten the already vulnerable balance between addressing farmers’ concerns and supporting Kyiv. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government faces both local and European elections this year.
The farmers, who fulfilled their promise to return to Warsaw after thousands of them marched through the city a week ago, now have the support of Poland’s largest labour union, NSZZ Solidarnosc, as well as hunters and forestry workers. Union leader Piotr Duda declared:
Miners, steel workers, automotive, food industry and many other industries are here. The most important thing is that we are together, because we have one common demand: down with the Green Deal, down with the green venom.
Tusk announced on Monday that Poland planned to ask the European Union to ban imports of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus. The prime minister invited the farmers’ leaders to the talks on Saturday.
