PROTESTING farmers in Brussels drove their tractors through the city. They also set fire to tyres in the streets, prompting the police to use water cannons.
Protesting farmers caused chaos in Brussels as hundreds drove their tractors through the European Quarter and blocked streets around the European Commission’s headquarters.
Protesters drove their tractors through the city centre and farmers setting fire to tyres and other objects in the streets of the Belgian capital, while the police responded with water cannons.
The protest coincided with an EU meeting to discuss changes to the Common Agricultural Policy.
Around 900 tractors were mobilized for the protest.
The protest in Brussels is just one of the many tractor protests and blockades that are happening in major highways across Europe in recent months.
Thousands of farmers have been rallying across France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Greece, among other countries.
The farmers are protesting against high production costs, tax hikes, red tape, fuel costs, EU-wide green regulations, and cheap imports such as those from Ukraine after the EU suspended tariffs and quotas amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.
‘’I’m from the farmers’ markets in Ghent, and we’ve gotten a major victory in the sale of our city’s public land to big investors. Like in Germany, like in France, like everywhere, there are big investors speculating on farmlands. And public lands end up in the hands of these speculators. On the other hand, it’s much better if public lands can be leased to farmers so that they can work properly,’’ protester from Ghent said.
‘’We come from Spain today to unite with all European farmers in a united message, although the claims are each at national level, they are obviously different, but the background and the union is the same. There is too heavy of a bureaucracy of the European Union, of the European law towards the member countries. It is a key sector, a primary sector, as the name says. It has been enduring too much legislative pressure for too long,’’protester from Spain said.
