The protest, organized days before the European elections, did not receive the support of the main farmers’ organization, Copa-Cogeca.
In a neighborhood far from Brussels city center and the European institutions, tractors and farmers gathered once again to protest against European environmental regulations, with demonstrators coming from Poland, the Netherlands and of France.
The organization “Force for the Defense of Farmers” expected between 15,000 and 20,000 people, but they did not There were ultimately only 2,000. According to Belgian police, around 500 tractors gathered near the famous Atomium.
One of the possible reasons is the support from far-right politicians and groups. Sieta van Keimpema, one of the spokespersons, denies this. “It’s a lie we’ve heard time and time again.”, she declares. She says it was all organized and financed by her farming group, which asked participants to not behave violently and not drink alcohol. “There is no politics in this protest and there is nothing extremist about it except that people are lying,” defends Ms van Keimpema.
But the list of speakers shows a different picture, with speeches by far-right party politicians such as the Flemish Vlaams Belang or the Polish PiS. The EU’s main farmers’ organisation, Copa-Cogeca, has distanced itself from the event and says none of its members took part.
For the European Greens, this is also a source of concern, which they defended in a press release published Tuesday morning. “The extreme right dangled to farmers the lie that Europe and the Green Deal are responsible for their difficulties“said Bas Eickhout, the party’s lead candidate and MEP.
Recently, amid agricultural protests, the European Commission lowered the environmental requirements of the European Green Deal and removed a new lawwhich was to reduce the use of pesticides in the sector. But for farmers, “it’s not sufficient”, explains Christian Convers, secretary general of the French Rural Coordination. “There have been some small changes that we are obliged to report, but for now, at this stage, they do not have an economic impact.”