Following altercations with the police, farmers threaten to shut down Poland

Following violent altercations with police outside the nation’s parliament in Warsaw, tens of thousands of farmers and their allies threatened to put Poland to a complete halt on Wednesday.
The demonstrators, who claimed that environmental laws and low-cost imports hurt their ability to make a living, had congregated near the prime minister’s office in the Polish capital, burning tires and setting off firecrackers.

Following their march towards the parliament, some protestors threw rocks, cobblestones, and firecrackers at the security personnel, while a Reuters witness saw police use batons, pepper spray, tear gas, and stun grenades on demonstrators.
Warsaw police said on X that “it was necessary to use direct coercive measures due to physical aggression against police officers by some of the people protesting.”
Marcin Kierwinski, Poland’s interior minister, said that “23 provocateurs have been detained” in a post on X. Several demonstrators were seen on local television barging into the legislative grounds before being restrained by police.
Leader of the farmers’ union and protest organizer Tomasz Obszanski told Reuters that as soon as the rally came to a conclusion, police started to block the demonstrators from leaving.
Obszanski, the head of the NSZZ RI Solidarnosc union for individual farmers, stated, “Everything was peaceful, and then the police came out of nowhere. There were loud bangs, and the police started using (tear) gas and simply provoking people to leave the protest.”
Farmers around the European Union have been demanding the reimposition of customs taxes on imports of agricultural goods from Ukraine that were waived after Russia’s invasion, as well as modifications to the constraints imposed on them by the bloc’s Green Deal plan to combat climate change.
The farmers were threatened with additional action if their request to meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was denied, according to Obszanski, who claimed the farmers were departing Warsaw empty-handed.
“After what happened today, there will be a blockade of the entire country… Poland will come to a standstill because a Polish farmer will not allow himself to be treated in such a way, to be batoned,” Obszanski said.
Farmers’ leaders have been invited by Tusk to a meeting on Saturday.
Obszanski put the number of demonstrators in the upper tens of thousands, while Warsaw municipal authorities put the figure closer to thirty thousand.
Following their successful protest in which thousands of farmers marched through Warsaw one week earlier, the farmers, together with hunters and forestry workers, had the support of Poland’s largest labor union, NSZZ Solidarnosc.
Before entering parliament, several demonstrators earlier set fire to a coffin with the words “farmer, lived 20 years, killed by the Green Deal” in front of Tusk’s office. They also honked their horns and raised Polish flags.
Tractors outside of Warsaw were prevented from entering, according to a a television video, while farmers in other parts of the nation blocked roadways.
In a year that sees both local and European elections, Tusk must strike a careful balance between listening to farmers’ concerns and sticking by Kyiv.
He has said that imports from Russia and its ally Belarus, as well as from Ukraine, are also to blame for market disruptions. On Monday, he announced that Poland would request that the EU prohibit the purchase of agricultural goods from Belarus and Russia.