EBN- Farmers are holding protests across Europe, clogging the streets with their tractors, blocking ports and pelting the European Parliament with eggs over a long list of complaints from environmental regulation to excessive red tape.
“We are no longer making a living from our profession,” one aggrieved farmer in Paris said during a protest.
While some of the most dramatic protests have been in France, similar action has been taking place in a host of countries including Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland, Greece, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Farming makes up just 1.4% of the European Union’s GDP, the latest figures show, but protests in Eastern Europe last year over cheap Ukrainian imports – which saw lengthy blockades at border crossings – show how farmers as a group are capable of causing major disruption.
Both national governments and the EU are now under pressure to quell the fresh demonstrations.
Belgian farmers targeted border crossings with the Netherlands in Zandvliet, Meer and Postel, causing delays.
In France, farmers blocked major highways leading to Paris as well as the cities of Lyon and Toulouse. Dozens of farmers set up tents and lit fires to keep themselves warm as they attempted to shut off routes into the French capital.
At least 91 people were detained on Wednesday for obstructing traffic and causing damage near the Rungis market south of Paris, a key distribution food hub, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported. But other protesters were less hostile: Some farmers handed out freshly baked pain-au-chocolats to police outside Paris.
