A peasant revolution and fear of a new yellow vest, What is the story of the farmer protests in Europe?

Farmer protests are sweeping a number of European countries, sparked by environmental and tax policies imposed by governments, which is where far-right parties find an opportunity to expand their popularity at the expense of the existing anger.

France woke up on Tuesday to a shocking incident , as one of the protesting farmers was killed in a fatal traffic accident while she and a number of other farmers were protesting to block a road in the province of Ariège. This added more fuel to the fire of anger sweeping the country’s farmers, who have been driving for about A week of protests against the government.

These protests are not limited to France alone. Anger is sweeping European farmers in Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and Poland, prompting them to take to the streets in protest against what they consider to be the decisions of governments that confiscated a number of their gains under the new environmental and tax policies.

On the other hand, the far-right parties see these protests as a golden opportunity to expand their popular base and gain points at the expense of the anger caused by the ruling parties.

Macron is afraid of another "yellow vests".

Farmer protests began in France on Thursday, January 18, as hundreds of them began blocking highways in the southwest of the country in protest against issues such as water storage, a tax on tractor fuel, delays in the payment of agricultural subsidies, and environmental standards imposed by the European Union.

These protests developed on Thursday night into attacks on government buildings, and an explosion occurred in an empty building belonging to the Environment Directorate in Oud Province (southwest), and graffiti was found referring to a group calling itself the “Agricultural Action Committee,” according to what Agence France-Presse reported . .

These movements worry the recently appointed French government because they bring to mind the Yellow Vest movement. Politico reported, citing a French minister, that President Macron gave instructions to pay special attention to farmers’ movements “for fear of a repeat of the Yellow Vest scenario.”

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal met on Monday with the leader of the largest agricultural union to discuss the demands of the protesting farmers. After this meeting, Arnaud Rousseau, leader of the Federation of Farmers' Unions, stated that "as long as we do not have concrete decisions, there will be no lifting of the measures taken on the ground," and he warned that French farmers will protest "as long as necessary."

Feelings of anger are rising among the protesters following the event that claimed the life of their colleague in the city of Areej on Tuesday morning. In press statements, the leader of the Federation of Farmers' Unions pledged to continue the protest and road closures, indicating that they would include all of French territory by the end of this week.

Last weekend, French far-right leader Jordan Bardella rode the wave of farmers' protests. During a visit to a farm in the southwest of the country on Saturday, Bardella accused the government and Macron's Europe campaign for the European elections of wanting "the death of French agriculture."

According to Politico, the far right, which leads by ten percentage points in the latest opinion polls for the European Union elections, is pressing for the imposition of an agricultural “state of emergency” and a protectionist agricultural policy,In order for France to exit free trade agreements, decisions that are welcomed by angry farmers.

German farmers deepen the Schulz crisis

In Germany, the protests have entered their fifteenth day since their outbreak on January 8. The German police reported that about 5,000 agricultural tractors and 30,000 farmers blocked the heart of the capital, Berlin, on Monday, honking their vehicle horns in protest against the government’s decision to cancel the tax concessions they were benefiting from, most notably the subsidy on diesel supplies for agricultural vehicles and the discount on the tax on those vehicles .

The demonstrations succeeded in pressuring the government and pushing it to partially retract the cuts, and promised to restore the discount on the vehicle tax and gradually cancel diesel subsidies over several years instead of immediately canceling them. However, the protesters did not accept these retreats, and demanded the overthrow of Schulz’s government.

The Schulz government imposed these austerity measures on farmers as part of its effort to fill a financing gap of about $60 billion in the 2024 budget, which it had planned to allocate to finance a project to combat climate change and modernize the country. The Supreme Court ruling, issued in November, annulled this government financing plan .

To fill the gap, coalition leaders said that the government would abolish the car tax exemption for agricultural vehicles and tax exemptions on diesel used in agriculture, which sparked widespread discontent among farmers.

In light of these tense conditions, German Chancellor Olaf Schulz is experiencing a deep crisis, as these are not the only labor protests that the country has witnessed during the last two months. In early January, strikes by railway employees paralyzed transport movement in Germany, after metalworkers and public sector employees organized strikes in December.

In addition, the protests sparked sharp disagreements among members of the German government. While the liberal Finance Minister defended the austerity measures imposed by the government on the sector, Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir, from the Green Party, criticized his colleague’s statements in the government, blaming him for fueling anger. Farmers.

Similar to France, The Guardian newspaper wrote that politicians in Germany fear that the far right will benefit from the anger of farmers and turn that anger into electoral gains.

The farmers' marches also attracted far-right demonstrators, who carried out controversial actions such as erecting gallows on the sides of highways and preventing Economy Minister Robert Habeck from getting off a ferry, according to media reports.

The peasants of Europe were angry!

On Monday morning, fruit and vegetable growers in Britain organized a “scarecrow” demonstration to protest the “unfair” treatment by the country’s supermarkets, which they described as a “threat” to their sector. Guy Singh-Watson , one of the organizers of the demonstration, said that the participants will place 49 scarecrows in front of the British Parliament, indicating that 49% of farmers are about to give up their profession.

British farmers are demanding that the country's six major supermarkets - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl - adhere to "fair" purchasing agreements, including purchasing agreed-upon quantities and paying the amounts due on time, and they warn that the current method of dealing will cause them to stop working in months. The next 12.

For his part, a spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stressed : “It is right that British farmers receive fair prices, and our review of supply chain fairness will help address these concerns.”

In the Netherlands, discontent in the agricultural sector came to the fore in June 2022, when the government revealed plans to reduce nitrogen emissions by reducing the country's herd of about 4 million cows by about a third, and closing some farms.

Dutch farmers organized protests , through which they uprooted the banners bearing the names of a number of cities and turned them upside down, in an expression of great anger at the government's environmental plans.

On the other hand, pressure from farmers in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria continues regarding the impact of Ukrainian grains on the competitiveness of their crops. Since last November, Polish peasants have led a sit- in on the Ukrainian border in order to pressure a solution to their problems.

Moscow announces the crash of a military plane carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers

Moscow announced the crash of a Russian L-76 military cargo plane carrying 74 people, including six crew members, three guards, and 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, on Wednesday in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that a Russian L-76 military cargo plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war crashed on Wednesday in the Belgorod region in southwestern Russia, bordering Ukraine.

The Russian Information Agency quoted the Ministry of Defense as saying that the plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war to be exchanged for Russian detainees.

It was reported that the plane was carrying 74 people when it crashed, including six crew members and three guards. No information is yet available about the cause of the plane crash.

The ministry said: “At approximately 11:00 Moscow time (08:00 GMT), an Ilyushin 76 plane crashed in the Belgorod region, carrying 65 Ukrainian army soldiers, prisoners, who were transported to the Belgorod region for an exchange, six crew members, and three companions.” ".

She added, "An Air Force committee went to the site of the plane crash to determine the causes of the disaster."

Andrei Kartapolov, a member of the Russian Parliament and a retired general, said during a parliamentary session that the plane went down after being targeted by three missiles. He did not mention the source of his information.

A video clip published by the "Baza" channel, which is linked to the Russian security services, showed a large plane falling to the ground near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region and exploding.

Pictures circulated on social media showed a plane crashing before a large explosion, accompanied by flames and black smoke.

The Ilyushin Il-76 is a military transport aircraft designed to transport troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons by air. It usually has a crew of five people and can carry up to 90 passengers.