BRUSSELS — Benoît Laqueue was certainly one of 100 disgruntled French farmers on a bus headed for the European Parliament earlier than dawn on Wednesday.
The 58-year-old cattle and cereal farmer from the agricultural Ardennes area, in northeastern France, got here with a message for the “technocrats” who “name the pictures” within the European Union.
“Go away us alone, allow us to work in peace!” mentioned Laqueue, who wore a yellow beanie matching the flag he was carrying, which bears the colours of the second-largest French farmers’ union, Rural Coordination.
The Frenchman, who runs a household farm collectively along with his spouse and son, says he’s burdened with administrative work and over-regulation from the EU, whereas affected by competitors from international nations with decrease costs and looser environmental guidelines — together with Ukraine. Hundreds of farmers throughout Europe have taken to the streets in latest weeks, claiming they’re being disproportionately affected by the EU’s efforts to slash greenhouse fuel emissions, and demanding extra monetary help from their governments.
“They’re not in [the EU], they’re exporting to us tax-free … they’ve taken markets away from us, and so they’re not producing with the identical guidelines as we’re!” Laqueue mentioned.
In Poland and Romania, farmers and truckers have blockaded roads in protest towards Brussels’ resolution to droop import duties on Ukrainian items following Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which they see as unfair competitors.
Demonstrations have additionally sprung up in Germany towards a authorities proposal to take away tax privileges, whereas French farmers have been protesting towards taxes on tractor gasoline and overregulation.
In each nations, protests have been co-opted by far-right actions looking for to make use of the farmers’ discontent for political achieve forward of the European election in June.
The Brussels protest was no exception, and was joined by Marion Maréchal, the niece of Marine Le Pen and likewise the lead candidate of the French far-right Reconquête occasion — based by anti-immigration firebrand Éric Zemmour.
Talking to reporters on the muddy Place du Luxembourg, Maréchal denied she was trying to “surf on the wave” of the farmers’ anger.
“I really feel involved as a result of it’s about our sovereignty,” Maréchal mentioned, calling for a “change of the European Parliament’s political line on each international coverage and this punitive ecology.”
Requested by POLITICO about their political leanings, most farmers claimed to be apolitical.
“We’re speaking to everybody” irrespective of the occasion, mentioned Jean-François Chaperon, a 58-year-old farmer from the southern Hérault space.
Wout van Looveren, a 25-year-old cow farmer from Belgium’s Flanders area, mentioned he felt “politically homeless.”
“There may be not one political occasion that’s approaching for our rights,” he mentioned.
Laqueue, the French farmer from the Ardennes area, mentioned it didn’t matter which politicians are in cost as a result of “they’re not those who name the pictures, the technocrats are.”
In an trade with Maréchal, the French farmer later echoed a few of the far-right’s speaking factors on immigration as he referred to an accident in southwestern France by which two individuals have been killed after a automobile hit a roadblock arrange by farmers.
Noting that the automobile’s three occupants have been beneath deportation orders from France, as reported by French media, Laqueue mentioned: “The three … shouldn’t have been right here. And that household should not have been in mourning.”
“You’re proper, that’s factual,” Maréchal answered.
