French farmers continue road blockade protests as EU chief appeals for dialogue

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen appealed for dialogue to overcome “polarisation” on Thursday as a wave of farmers protests hit Europe, fuelled by discontent over squeezed incomes and burdensome rules.

French farmers said they would blockade Paris following similar protests in Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Poland, demanding additional subsidies for agriculture and fewer green policies.

The EU chief, who is expected to seek a second term in office in the coming months, told the launch of a review on the future of agriculture that farmers needed a “predictable way forward” amid efforts to reduce the sector’s ecological damage.

“I think we all sense that there is an increasing division and polarisation when it comes to topics relevant and related to agriculture,” Ms von der Leyen told the event, saying “dialogue” was the way forward.

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“We all have the same sense of urgency, that things have to improve, and that we have to find a new way forward, and common and lasting solutions for the problems that you’re all very much aware of.”

The European Green Deal, an attempt to overhaul the EU’s economy and society to meet the continent’s pledges to cut carbon emissions and avoid catastrophic levels of climate change, was a flagship policy of Ms von der Leyen.

But it has come under intense political pressure from her own centre-right political group, the European People’s Party of Fine Gael, as it fears a backlash from the farming sector in advance of European elections in June.

After a week of blocking roads by parking their tractors and dumping piles of debris, French farmers said they would continue their protests until the government offers major concessions to their demands. Two major farmers unions called for a “blockade of Paris” on Friday, telling members to gather on the main roads around the capital.

The farmers complain that their incomes have been squeezed by tightened rules and attempts to phase out tax breaks on fuel, while they are offered low prices for their produce. The French government put a draft farming law on hold as the protests began.

Protests have taken place elsewhere in Europe. In Germany, the government watered down a plan to cut tax breaks for diesel for farm vehicles after farmers dumped manure on the streets of Berlin, but protests continued in a push for the policy to be scrapped outright.

In Poland, angry farmers who say their incomes have been squeezed by competition from cheap Ukrainian imports forced the government to declare import restrictions on goods from the country, denting the solidarity shown by one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies.

In Romania in recent weeks, farmers and truck drivers protested on roads around the capital and blocked access to a border crossing with Ukraine in protest at diesel and insurance prices, green policies, and competition from Ukrainian agricultural goods.

The demonstrations recall a farmers protest movement that took off in the Netherlands in recent years against attempts by the government to cut the sector’s vast nitrogen emissions, propelling the right-wing agrarian populist BBB party into parliament.

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