Polish government caves into farmers’ demands as thousands march on Warsaw

The Polish government agreed to meet farmers’ demands on Tuesday, as thousands marched in Warsaw to protest against the European Green Deal and imports of Ukrainian food.

Polish farmers have not changed their demands, continuing to call for an end to EU Green Deal policies that are damaging the agricultural sector and, most importantly, an end to the influx of cheap Ukrainian food into Poland.

Tuesday’s protest in Warsaw was attended by 10,000 farmers, according to figures given by organisers before the protest and confirmed by Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.

“The European agrifood markets need stabilisation to make agricultural production more predictable. Predictability is key,” Andrzej Danielak of the Polish Union of Poultry Breeders and Producers (PZZHiPD) told Euractiv.

Following the European Commission’s implementation of so-called security corridors to liberalise trade rules with Ukraine and help the war-torn country continue exporting its food products, Poland has had to contend with Ukrainian produce flooding its market, driving down prices and demand for domestic produce.

“We are under pressure from Ukraine’s supply of agricultural products of all kinds. They have pushed down the prices of our crops so that we are making a loss,” one of the protesting farmers told public broadcaster TVP.

In addition to cereals, which Poland has unilaterally banned from entering the country, other products affected include poultry, sugar, eggs, frozen berries and apple juice.

In contrast to last week’s protests, most protesters decided not to bring their tractors.

The march started at Warsaw’s landmark Palace of Science and Culture and ended at the parliament building. While most marchers carried the white-and-red national flag, some carried banners reading “Without us, you will be hungry, naked and sober”, a message to city dwellers, and “I am a farmer, not a slave”.

But some banners were openly anti-Ukrainian, with one saying: “Take care of your family’s health. Don’t eat crap from Ukraine” and “Enough hospitality for ungrateful sons of bit****”, referring to Poland’s hosting of millions of Ukrainian refugees since the start of full-scale war two years ago.

Unlike the protests in Western European countries, most of the protests in Poland are not against the government but against EU policies. The new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk is firmly behind the protesters.

Tusk, who visited Prague on Tuesday to attend the Visegrad Group summit, promised to address farmers’ concerns, including those related to trade with Ukraine.

“We are realistic about the impact of the (EU’s) free trade decision with Ukraine, which negatively affects our markets,” he said after meeting his Czech counterpart Petr Fiala.

Parliament Speaker Szymon Hołownia met the protesters in parliament. While his own party, Poland 2050 (Renew), supports green policies, he admitted that the European Green Deal was not working quite as it should and needed to be addressed.

Besides staging protests in cities and towns, farmers have also been blocking border crossings and major roads to the Ukrainian border to prevent lorries of Ukrainian food from entering Poland.

This has caused tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv, with Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy calling the protesters “pro-Russian provocateurs” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking of an “erosion of solidarity” by Poland with Ukraine saying the protests were “about politics, not grain”.

Tusk’s new government says it will try to resolve the issue with the Ukrainian side so that both sides are satisfied – yet Tusk turned down Zelenskyy’s offer to meet him at the border last Saturday (24 February), with a meeting between the two scheduled for the end of March.

Even though farmers are undoubtedly impacted by Ukrainian competition, Danielak believes that escalating tensions with Kyiv does not serve any sides.

“The friendship between Poland and Ukraine is of great value. There is no need to ruin it by damaging the relations, not only those economic, but mostly interpersonal,” he said to Euractiv.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)