Editorial: Parisians, bring out the pitchforks

CHENNAI: In scenes reminiscent of the protests that took place in India on account of the roll-out of the controversial farm laws, cities across Europe are caught in waves of agitation spearheaded by agricultural workers. This week, farmers encircled Paris with traffic-snarling barricades, using tractors and hay bales to block highways leading to France’s capital to pressure the government over the future of their industry, which has been shaken by repercussions of the Ukraine war.

French farmers assert that higher prices for fertiliser, energy and other inputs for growing crops and feeding livestock have eaten into incomes. They argued that France’s massively subsidised farming sector is over-regulated and hurt by food imports from countries where agricultural producers face lower costs and fewer constraints. In response, PM Attal said he is implementing controls on foreign food products to guarantee “fair competition”

The movement echoes the 2018-2019 yellow vest demonstrations against economic injustice that rocked the first term of President Macron. Last week, two climate activists had also hurled soup at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and shouted slogans advocating a sustainable food system.

Agitators alleged that Paris broke its climate commitments and had called for the equivalent of a state-sponsored health care system to be put in place to give people better access to healthy food while providing farmers a decent income. Local farmers called out Ukrainian sugar producers, lamenting that their soaring exports to Europe since the Russian invasion in February 2022 are “untenable” for European counterparts.

French farmers have also been levelled by the burden of competing with food from other countries with lower labour and living costs. The French protests are emblematic of discontent in agro heartlands across the EU. In recent weeks, farmers have staged protests in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium and Romania as well.

Last week, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate was swamped by heavy vehicles tooting their horns in protest — farmers on Monday and truckers on Friday. Chancellor Scholz’s government is struggling to juggle multiple crises, meet climate targets and invest in neglected infrastructure while mitigating tight self-imposed rules on running up debt. Amidst two-year-long inflation, people anticipate a surge in costs on account of a plan to replace fossil-fuel heating systems with greener alternatives.

Beyond the border, Polish farmers who had blockaded a border crossing to Ukraine reached an agreement with the government over complaints that imports of Ukrainian foods have caused prices to fall, hurting their incomes. The influential agro sector has become a hot-button issue ahead of European Parliament elections in June, with populist and far-right parties hoping to benefit from rural disgruntlement against free trade agreements, burdensome costs worsened by Russia’s military engagement in Ukraine.

Last week, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen opened a discussion to put farming on a new footing, hoping to take into account some of the complaints raised by protesters around the bloc. The manner in which EU states remain divided on the agro-agitation points to a deeper rot that lies at the heart of the bloc, signifying a widening chasm of its values on free trade, immigration, and military alignment. The UK, which opted for Brexit, on account of fishing rights, among other things, might be going, “Told you so.”