Farmers back on political scene, putting pressure on governments

From France to Poland and Germany, tractors are taking to the streets, raising fears among national governments that farmers, usually seen as a more conservative part of the electorate, may become a potential voting pool for the far right.

“The populists have no better answers, but they will take advantage of the situation in the European elections,” warned Fabian Zuleeg, head of the European Policy Centre think tank, referring to the vote for the new European Parliament in early June.

In November, French farmers blocked roads and started turning roadside municipal signs upside-down with the motto “on marche sur la tête”, to symbolise national and European agricultural policies “walking on their head”.

For the farmers, that is embodied in penalising food producers with the increase in fees on phytosanitary products and irrigation, the end of the tax exemption on tractor’s diesel, and the potential impact of EU free trade agreements.

It was just the beginning of a wave of mobilisation involving several countries in the EU, with reasons differing from one to the next according to the context.

In Poland, farmers resumed the blockade of the border crossing with Ukraine, protesting against what they say is a flood of cheaper Ukrainian products, putting pressure on the new government led by Donald Tusk, which relies on the support of the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL).

The protest is now suspended “because the minister of agriculture accepted the demands”, Jacek Zarzeski of the Federation of Agricultural Producers Union told Euractiv.

But discontent is still at work, mainly due to opening the market to Ukrainian products. “Farmers oppose this and expect protective measures from the European Commission to shield them from an unlimited influx of Ukrainian products,” Zarzeski added.

The latest hotspot of the farmers’ protest is Germany, where the government proposed cutting fuel and vehicle tax exemptions to the sector.

“On 18 December we had the first big protest in Berlin, another one followed on 8 January and a third big rally will be on 15 January,” said Stefan Meitinger of the German farmers association DBV.

Berlin proposed to slow down the phasing out of the tax exemptions for the sector, which are a current practice in many EU countries. But protest are continuing.

“No place for violence”

“Our demand is clear, we want the status quo, also because higher taxes on diesel” mean that “competitors” in Europe “can continue to work with significantly lower tax rates”, Meitinger added.

Far-right parties are jumping on the protest bandwagon, but farmers are not happy with that.

“Let’s be clear, this is a democratic farmers’ protest, we don’t want it to be hijacked by far rights groups and violence”, Meitinger stressed.

According to the president of COPA, Christiane Lambert, “in Germany, fuel taxes are just the last straw”.

“For years, European farmers have felt they were scarcely considered and now they are under pressure because of a transition at an accelerated pace”, Lambert explained, blaming it on the former European Commission vice president Frans “Timmermans’ method” and “unachievable targets, in a difficult economic context because of inflation and the rise in imports”.

“It’s rather surprising that there was not awareness that we have had farmers back on the agenda because there is particular pressure on agriculture, and the sector still plays a big role in the politics of many member states,” commented Zuleeg.

“Populists have no better answers to the farmers’ problems, but they will clearly take advantage of the situation in the European elections.”

Maria Simon Arboleas contributed to this reporting

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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