Frustrated farmers are rebelling against EU rules. The far right is stoking the flames
Farmer's Defense Force vice president Jos Ubels poses for a portrait at his farm in Anderen, Northern Netherlands, Monday, March 18, 2024. Ubels feels that everything from overbearing bureaucrats insisting when farmers should sow or harvest, imposing excessive restrictions on fertilizer and manure use and unfair international competition condoned by the European Union have created a potent mix that has driven him away from mainstream politics. Credit: AP/Peter Dejong
ANDEREN, Netherlands — Inside the barn on the flat fields of the northern Netherlands, Jos Ubels cradles a newborn Blonde d'Aquitaine calf, the latest addition to his herd of over 300 dairy cattle.
Little could be more idyllic.
Little, says Ubels, could be more under threat.
As Europe seeks to address the threat of climate change, it's imposing more rules on farmers like Ubels. He spends a day a week on bureaucracy, answering the demands of European Union and national officials who seek to decide when farmers can sow and reap, and how much fertilizer or manure they can use.
Meanwhile, competition from cheap imports is undercutting prices for their produce, without having to meet the same standards. Mainstream political parties failed to act on farmers’ complaints for decades, Ubels says. Now the radical right is stepping in.
Across much of the 27-nation EU, from Finland to Greece, Poland to Ireland, farmers' discontent is gathering momentum as June EU parliamentary elections draw near.
Ubels is the second in command of the Farmers Defense Force, one of the most prominent groups to emerge from the foment. The FDF, whose symbol is a crossed double pitchfork, was formed in 2019 and has since expanded to Belgium. It has ties to similar groups elsewhere in the EU and is a driving force behind a planned June 4 demonstration in Brussels it hopes will bring 100,000 people to the EU capital and help define the outcome of the elections.
Polish farmers with national flags and angry slogans written on boards, protest against European Union green policies that trim their production and against cheap grain and other food imports from Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland, on Feb. 27, 2024. Across the EU, long convoys of tractors have cut off economic lifelines like ports and beltways around major cities, sometimes for days on end, with costs to industry running into the tens of millions daily and keeping hundreds of thousands of people from going to work. Credit: AP/Czarek Sokolowski
“It is time that we fight back,” said Ubels. “We’re done with quietly listening and doing what we are told.”
Has he lost trust in democracy? “No. … I have lost my faith in politics. And that is one step removed.”
The FDF itself puts it more ominously on its website: “Our confidence in the rule of law is wavering!”
___
Angry farmers scuffle with police officers at the International Agriculture Fair as French President Emmanuel Macron tours the exhibition on the opening day in Paris, on Feb. 24, 2024. Farmers across Europe have been protesting for weeks over what they say are excessively restrictive environmental rules. Credit: AP/Lewis Joly
This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an ongoing Associated Press series covering threats to democracy in Europe.
2 more body parts suspects in court ... Bethpage park chemical drums ... MTA backs LIRR discount ... Montauk ice problem
2 more body parts suspects in court ... Bethpage park chemical drums ... MTA backs LIRR discount ... Montauk ice problem
