The scene of angry farmers blocking roads, ports, railways and city centers has become a common sight across Europe, from Poland to Portugal. Traffic has come to a standstill in parts of Brussels and Berlin in recent weeks.Farmers shut down highways, dumped fertilizer, threw eggs, trashed supermarkets and set fires. They stole hay bales and pallets and clashed with police.
As the Guardian's European correspondent john henry To tell michael safi There are several reasons for their anger. These include soaring prices for fuel and fertilizer, pressure on supermarket prices, and an influx of cheap imported goods flooding the market. But their anger focuses on what they see as onerous new environmental regulations from Brussels and their own governments. The protests are working. Politicians have been compromising and delaying any measures in recent weeks, as elections approach and far-right groups agitate against environmental policy. But the climate crisis is only getting worse, and Europe is increasingly on the front lines, as the prolonged drought in Spain shows.
Photo: Czerek Sokołowski/AP
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