‘We Shot Ourselves in the Head’: Mass European Farmer Protests Blowback for Ukraine Support
03:49 GMT 01.02.2024 (Updated: 13:23 GMT 02.02.2024)
© AFP 2023 / Matthieu Mirville
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After farmers blocked highways leading into Paris last week, farmers from several other European countries have followed suit, protesting against their countries’ dropping of fuel subsidies, green regulations and dropping sale prices.
Veteran war correspondent Elijah Magnier told Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Wednesday that the root causes of the protests stem from Europe’s decision “to follow the United States policy and join the war against Russia.”
“We shot ourselves in the foot, basically that’s very soft – we shot ourselves in the head and now we are paying the price,” Magnier said.
He noted how everything from energy to consumer food prices has skyrocketed in Europe, but that has not caused European leaders to change course. “Now, they are attacking the heart of Europe that are the farmers … they can no longer stand on their feet with the difference of prices, with the increase of price [for consumers and] the lower price that the markets are buying off of them.”
Co-host Jamarl Thomas asked Magnier what demands the farmers have. Magnier replied that they want protection from cheap products coming out of Ukraine, subsidies on diesel fuel to be reinstated, the rollback of European Green New Deal regulations that limit when and what crops are allowed to be planted and a fair price from the supermarket that matches the cost of living increases in Europe.
Part of the issue, says Magnier is that the EU hamstrings what the individual countries’ leaders can do to respond to their population.
“It's a serious issue today in Europe, where the European leaders are no longer able to rule Europe as it used to be, and we see how the [countries in the union are] going really down the slope and nobody's stopping it,” Magnier explained.
In particular, Magnier explained, farmers are angry that they have to follow the new regulations but Ukraine is allowed to skirt them under the guise that they are at war.
“When you say ‘you cannot plant this kind of vegetable at this particular time of the year because of the CO2 and because of the climate change and because we need to transform Europe into a green environment,’” Magnier explained. “You cannot [also] say, 'Okay, this is applicable only on the Europeans [with] the exception of Ukraine,' that doesn't go, it doesn't work.
“The farmers today are waking up [to] the consequences of the Ukrainian conflict and they are saying 'we have to be completely detached from what is happening in Ukraine because this is not our war,’” he added.
Instead of fighting with the farmers, Magnier said he believes the EU should at least pause the Green New Deal regulations until after the conflict in Ukraine is over and talk to the farmers about what they need and can accommodate, but he noted that trust between the two parties has already been severed.
“So what [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen is saying is, 'Well, I'm ready to talk to you to see what we need and how we can work together.' But it is too late. [The EU should] stop all [their] procedures and say, 'let us talk.' But you don't negotiate with the knife at the throat of the farmers saying, 'Well, now I have to think what I can lift, what I cannot lift.'"
“If the leaders in Brussels don't start talking and listening to the farmers, they cannot achieve their [Green New Deal] plan, so the plan is unachievable,” he added.
