Protests in Europe Could Lead to a Major Social Crisis, by Lucas Leiroz

Europe’s farmers are in no mood to take one for the team. From Lucas Leiroz at strategic-culture.su:

The current protests in Europe are leading several countries to a serious social crisis. European governments remain unwilling to meeting the demands of peasants and farmers, generating an escalation in demonstrations and concerns about the stability of the EU in the near future.

Rural workers demand the creation of protective mechanisms for domestic production, reducing the import of agricultural items, as well as changes in “green” policies that strongly harm producers. Protests have been ongoing since January, with thousands of farmers taking to the streets in countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Romania and the Netherlands – as well as smaller demonstrations in some other states.

There is a number of factors that need to be understood in order to properly analyze the current crisis. Firstly, it is necessary to remember that the European agricultural sector is traditionally more fragile than other economic segments, such as industry and finance. Local farmers are in a disadvantaged position in relation to the major food producing powers outside Western Europe. For this reason, the sector has always been heavily dependent on state incentives to remain active, guaranteeing stability and profits for farmers.

However, European states are failing to fulfill their duty as agricultural sponsors. Since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the EU has suffered from the side effects of the imposition of illegal sanctions against Moscow, as trade of Russian energy and fertilizers has been banned. In addition, to help the neo-Nazi regime, the EU began to massively import Ukrainian agricultural products, virtually destroying the internal agribusiness of Western-European states.

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