Ignoring Europe-wide farmers' protests over Green Deal policies risks fuelling rise of far-right – Paul Wilson

Demonstrators feel their livelihoods are under threat from the EU’s Green Deal “farm to fork” strategy

A farmers’ revolt is shaking the political foundations of Europe. Thousands of tractors blockaded the French capital in “the siege of Paris” this week and similar protests were held throughout France. The scenes have been played out across the continent, with protesters taking to the streets in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Belgium.

Complaints vary from region to region and from country to country, but the demonstrators all feel their livelihoods are under threat from the EU’s Green Deal “farm to fork” strategy. One key plank of the agenda is to slash the use of the nitrogen-based fertilisers that have enabled higher and more reliable crop yields from smaller land areas over the past century.

Sri Lankans might sound a note of caution here. In a bold move that caught the eye of Western environmentalists, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa implemented a sudden ban on chemical fertilisers for the nation’s two million farmers. The April 2021 switch to universal organic farming quickly sent the country into a tailspin of crop failure and social collapse.

Farmers block the A7 motorway near Albon, south-east France, amid protests across both the country and Europe over what they regard as excessive charges and environmental protection rules (Picture: Olivier Chassignole/AFP via Getty Images

Currency collapse, soaring inflation

Harvests of the country’s staple crops of rice and tea were disastrous. Sri Lanka had to import these goods instead of export them and found itself with little to trade for food and fuel. Blackouts were implemented for up to ten hours a day as Sri Lankans queued for hours to get to filling stations that had to be secured by armed guards. The currency collapsed, inflation soared and rocketing food prices drove people to starvation.

Rajapaksa was forced to flee the country and resign in July 2022 when around 300,000 protesters took over his home and offices and set fire to the prime minister’s house. The fertiliser ban has been reversed and Sri Lanka is now in recovery with the aid of a four-year IMF bailout programme.

The Dutch government is not planning such a radical move. But in 2019 it set out proposals to take over thousands of farms through compulsory purchases to help it meet the EU emissions reduction target of 50 per cent by 2030. The ensuing protests overshadowed last year’s regional elections, in which voters turned in large numbers to the newly-formed Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB).

Mark Rutte’s coalition government collapsed in July and veteran right-winger Geert Wilders convincingly won a general election in December. The BBB could now form part of a Wilders-led, right-wing coalition. In Ireland, farmers are resisting proposals to cull 65,000 cows a year for three years to reduce methane emissions.

Unfair competition from Ukraine

In Germany, thousands of tractors descended on Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate last month as demonstrators shut down motorways, protesting against Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s plans to cut tax breaks for farmers and subsidies for agricultural diesel. Farmers across the continent are also angry about what they see as unfair competition from Ukraine, after the EU waived customs duties and import quotas following the country’s invasion by Russia.

Any persecution complex gnawing away at the agricultural sector will not have been helped by pronouncements from the likes of outgoing US climate envoy John Kerry. Addressing a climate summit in Washington DC last May, he said: “A lot of people have no clue that agriculture contributes 33 per cent of all the emissions of the world. We can’t get to net zero, we don’t get this job done, unless agriculture is front and centre as part of the solution.”

He added: “Food systems themselves contribute a significant amount of emissions... With a growing population on the planet – we just crossed the threshold of eight billion fellow citizens around the world – emissions from the food system alone are projected to cause another half a degree of warming by mid-century.”

In other words, there is just too much farming going on because there are just too many mouths to feed. So we’ll have to address that, somehow. In a room of, say, eight people, we could really do with getting rid of at least seven. Not you, though. Or me. Or John Kerry.

It is an appallingly bleak misreading of the resilience and adaptability of humans that has never had any bearing on reality, yet which somehow retains an enduring appeal. “Degrowth” is the euphemism for which some advocates of the EU’s Green Deal now reach, but not everyone subscribes to the rationale behind it.

Populists taking advantage

One person’s degrowth is another person’s catastrophic economic collapse, especially if that person finds themselves facing the loss of their livelihood or struggling to afford food. And going after the people who provide us with the food we need to stay alive is proving a tough sell with voters. We are seeing a rise in politicians who are, typically, right-wing anti-EU populists because currently they seem to be the only ones willing to address protesters’ concerns.

Some polls predict anti-EU parties will win June’s European Parliament elections in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, and come second or third in nine other countries.

The hard-right Identity and Democracy Group, which includes Marine Le Pen’s RN in France (previously Le Front National) and the Alternative for Germany party, could go from being the fifth-largest to the third-largest bloc.

Our political leaders must wake up to this danger fast. It’s no use just calling the protesters names or ignoring them and hoping they go away. Without meaningful concessions, the protests are only likely to grow louder.

There may no longer be a Bastille left to storm, but with just six months until Paris hosts the Olympic Games, French President Emanuel Macron must find something to mollify those now laying siege to the city.

Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are to hold talks on the farming crisis today. They should do so in the knowledge that, if they and their counterparts across the continent do not make some sort of concessions to the protesters and their supporters, voters are likely to seek out other politicians who will.