During a large demonstration this Wednesday in Warsaw, clashes broke out between farmers and the police. Less than a hundred days before the European elections, the pressure is increasing a notch against the government of Donald Tusk.
The anger of Polish farmers does not abate. With less than 100 days now before the European elections, the tension is still very palpable against a backdrop of revenge of the opposition after the victory of Donald Tusk’s coalition, the new Polish Prime Minister.
On Wednesday, during a new demonstration in Warsaw, participants threw paving stones at police and tried to break through barriers around parliament, several police officers were injured, authorities said. Several dozen demonstrators were arrested.
These events mark udo not escalate in protests farmers angered by European Union policies and by food imports from Ukraine which they say threaten their livelihoods.
Farmers on tractors also blocked highways leading to Warsaw while thousands of their supporters gathered outside the prime minister’s office. Some trampled a European Union flag and burned a fake coffin bearing the word “farmer”.
Polish farmers were joined by miners, foresters, hunters and other supporters. They honked horns and set off firecrackers and smoke bombs, despite police warnings that the use of pyrotechnics was prohibited. Some demonstrators burned tires.
This escalation increased pressure on the government of Donald Tusk. The latter has already made it known that he understands the “justified” frustrations of farmers and announced that he planned to propose amendments to the European Green Deal, criticized by the demonstrators. “Environmental protection cannot and must not be in conflict with food production”he recalled Donald Tusk this week.
The former president of the European Council is also trying to calm the anger caused by the influx of grain and other Ukrainian food productswhich Polish farmers say are driving down market prices and endangering the agricultural sector.