Tens of thousands of disgruntled Polish farmers marched through downtown Warsaw on Friday to protest the European Union’s climate policies and oppose the pro-EU government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The march under the slogan “Down with the Green Deal” was organised by Solidarity, a farmers’ trade union that is strongly opposed to the EU’s farming policies, in particular a policy known as the Green Deal which aims to make agriculture more climate-friendly. The farmers say it interferes with their work and imposes high costs on them.
“We are protesting because we don’t want to become slaves on our own land,” said dairy farmer Grazyna Gasowska from eastern Poland. “According to the Green Deal we are supposed to grow what they tell us to when they tell us to,” Ms. Gasowska said as she held a national white-and-red flag. “All those diversification requirements are very difficult for the farmers.”
The noisy march stopped at the EU Warsaw office and then at Parliament.
The demonstration came as Poland’s political parties campaign ahead of elections next month for the European Parliament. The protest was supported by the Polish right-wing Opposition party Law and Justice, which held power from 2015 until late last year.
Mr. Tusk’s pro-European Union government has embarked on a wide reversal of the policies of the Law and Justice party, which put Poland on a collision course with the 27-member EU during its administration.
