Tractor revolt. How European farmers are destroying the Green Deal and Ukrainian exports

Radical Polish politicians are using pan-European farmers' protests for their election campaigns. LIGA.net looked into what the farmers in Germany, France, Spain, Poland, and Romania are really protesting against and who is trying to link Ukrainian agricultural exports to it.

The video of three tons of Ukrainian grain that provocateurs spilled on the Polish road near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint on February 11 quickly went viral in Ukraine. Only the Polish media noted that the original source of this hype image was a post by Rafał Miekler on the X platform (formerly Twitter). This small businessman rose to prominence as a politician during the first wave of protests and headed one of the branches of the right-wing party Confederation of Freedom and Independence. After the last elections, this political force has 7.2% of the votes in parliament, making it the smallest faction.

Poland: farmers as a springboard for politicians

Since February 9, Polish farmers on tractors have been blocking roads in almost 300 cities and towns across the country. Among them are six checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border. The blockade is not tight – traffic at some of them is partially stopped or occurs at certain hours.