Thousands of farmers protest in Warsaw against Mercosur agreement

(Photo: Pixabay)

According to the organizers, about ten thousand people took part in the protest. The farmers marched towards the capital with about a thousand tractors, but the police did not allow the machines into the city center, so the protesters marched on foot through the streets of the capital. The farmers’ representatives emphasized that the mechanisms included in the Mercosur agreement do not protect producers enough. The representatives of the protesters were received by President Karol Nawrocki in the morning, after which the protesters gathered at the Palace of Culture, considered one of the symbols of the capital, and from there they marched in front of the parliament building and then to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The farmers’ delegation entered the office and asked Prime Minister Donald Tusk for a meeting

After their request was not met, the delegation began a sit-in inside the building. Slawomir Izdebski, the head of the agricultural workers’ union, told reporters that the farmers were trying to pitch tents in front of the prime minister’s office. Damian Murawiec, another protest leader, told reporters that the farmers were criticizing the government for “giving up too early on the creation of a blocking minority needed to reject the Mercosur agreement” in the Council of the European Union. Meanwhile, the EU body gave preliminary approval to the agreement before the protest ended. Poland voted against it along with four other countries. Donald Tusk blamed previous Polish governments for the EU decision at a press conference on Friday afternoon, while Rafal Leskiewicz, the Polish president’s spokesman, blamed Tusk’s government for failing to create a blocking minority on the issue in the EU.

MTI