Polish farmers hold “warning protests” across Poland

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Polish farmers have today held “warning protests” around the country against the proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and the South American Mercosur bloc. They are also expressing opposition to the European Green Deal and a possible new animal protection law in Poland.

They have warned that, if the Polish authorities do not meet their demands, all farmers’ unions and other groups will unite to organise a larger and more serious demonstration.

Last month, some farmers briefly blockaded a border crossing with Ukraine in opposition to the EU-Mercosur deal. However, they agreed to suspend that protest after the agriculture minister spoke with them and made clear that the government was also opposed to the trade agreement in its current form.

Subsequently, the Polish cabinet formally announced that it would not support the deal with Mercosur. Some other EU countries, most notably France, are also opposed it.

Nevertheless, today farmers organised protests in over 20 locations around Poland at which they drove through cities, handing out flyers and apples.

“We want to draw the attention of city dwellers to know that food from outside the European Union is stuffed with chemicals”, Damian Murawiec, one of the organisers in the city of Elbląg, which saw today’s largest protest, told broadcaster TVN.

Murawiec told Poradnik Rolniczy, a farming weekly, that they are also opposed to “the absurdities of the European Green Deal” – an EU plan to reach climate neutrality – as well as a potential ban on fur farming, an idea that recently reemerged in the Polish parliament.

The fur farming ban is part of a wider proposed animal protection law that the farmers are opposed too, notes trade news website Farmer.pl.

The EU and Mercosur – whose largest members are Brazil and Argentina – reached an agreement in principle on a free trade deal in 2019 after 20 years of negotiations. But it remains unratified due to opposition, in particular from France.

The deal envisions a free trade area spanning a population of 700 million people. There are currently diplomatic efforts underway to finally push through the agreement. But it has met with resistance from farmers in some European countries, who fear it will create unfair competition.

For the agreement to be adopted, it needs the support of a qualified majority, that is 15 of the 27 EU member states representing at least 65% of the EU population.

The proposal can be prevented from proceeding by a so-called blocking minority, which must consist of EU states representing together more than 35% of the EU’s population plus one additional member state.

Polish deputy agriculture minister Adam Nowak estimates that there is a chance such minority will be reached to block the agreement. Nowak told broadcaster RMF24 that, apart from Poland and France, Austria and Ireland are also against and Italy is still hesitant.

“Even Spain…has a lot of opposition from the agricultural organisation Asaja, which is also raising a lot of opposition at European level. I think the ball is still in play,” he said.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Bartosz Banka / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Agata Pyka

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.