On Friday, farmers demanding fair prices and reduced red tape stopped the border between Belgium and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, their French counterparts began removing blockades nationwide following additional concessions from the government.
Protests by farmers have erupted across many European nations, from France to Poland, revealing tensions over how the EU’s fight against climate change, growing expenses, and foreign competition would affect farming.
This week, the discontent reached a breaking point in Brussels when farmers, demanding that EU officials at a nearby summit do more to help them, flung eggs and stones at the European Parliament and blew off fireworks.
Farmers from Belgium and the Netherlands continued to block lorries from entering or leaving the port of Zeebrugge, which handles automobile imports as well as some fresh produce from the UK and other countries. On Friday, they blocked many border crossings between their countries.
Tesla, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, and Volvo are among the automakers shipping supplies via Zeebruggee, according to a port representative. The port’s capacity is quickly filling up with vehicles that are stranded on the quay. Outside the port, there was a backlog of about 2,000 trucks.
Alexander De Croo, the prime minister of Belgium, urged his farmers to remove their blockades.
In the meantime, French farmers had halted their protests after obtaining more promises from the government and were taking down many of their hay bale roadblocks at dozens of locations throughout France, including multiple highways heading into the country’s capital.
