European Farmers are protesting against national and EU farming rules.
Farmers’ protests continued across Europe on Friday, with 66 arrests in Paris after protesting farmers blocked the Champs-Élysées during the early hours.
Placing tractors and straw bales along the iconic avenue near the Arc de Triomphe and French President Emmanuel Macron’s office, the Élysée Palace, the farmers briefly brought traffic to a standstill.
Described as a “symbolic” and “peaceful” act by the French farmers union, the tractors were escorted by National Police motorbikes.
In addition to their national demands, the French farmers are protesting against an EU trade pact with the Mercosur group of South American countries.
Polish farmers block access to Lithuania
In Poland, farmers blocked the road to Lithuania, the only access route from the Baltic States to Poland and southern countries.
They are opposed to the alleged re-export of Ukrainian grain, which would go from Poland to Lithuania in transit and return from Lithuania as an EU import to Poland with no testing or control.
But Jerzy Plewa, former Polish deputy agriculture minister and a former Director General for Agriculture and Rural Development at the European Commission, in an interview with Euroactiv blamed “record exports from Russia,”.
“Low grain prices on global markets are largely due to Russia’s record exports, which are being sold at low prices particularly to African markets, but also to Europe”, he said.
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