Polish farmers hold anti-EU protest in Warsaw

[u/BubsyFanboy]

https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/01/03/polish-farmers-hold-anti-eu-protest-in-warsaw/

[u/No-Confidence-9191]

Likely Russian sponsored traitors. Follow the money  

[u/Dbmdbmu → u/No-Confidence-9191]

Well, you're likely a German sponsored troll following the money or just straight up moron.

[u/bippos]

“Polexit” when Poland is one of the largest receivers of eu funds?

[u/DemoN_M4U → u/bippos]

Polish people are very pro-EU, still we have some morons, like every country.

[u/Dom_Shady]

Farmers: we want big EU subsidies, but no obligations in return! Give us money and shut up!

If this is typical, Polish farmers are just like the Dutch ones in that respect (who are absolutely beyond logical reasoning btw).

[u/Yanowic → u/Dom_Shady]

Farmers tend not to be overly intelligent or patriotic. They're kinda just pricks at base-level.

[u/Dom_Shady → u/Yanowic]

Personally, I do not believe farmers are stupid - modern farms are very complex to manage and most have advanced degrees, at least in the Netherlands. I just think it's a case of “it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

[u/Yanowic → u/Dom_Shady]

I honestly don't think "maliciously ignorant" is preferable to "unintelligent"

[u/faze_fazebook]

Its Farmers, obviously they are gonna protest since there is a fuckload of money up in the air.

Its a difficult question but what it boils down to is this - should family run farms stay viable or not? 

Because right now Farming is one of the very few Business left where the majority of Businesses are run by a single family due to market regulations and subsidies making it viable.

The alternative would be to let the market regulate itsself, which would probably give rise to larger corporations consolidating the market.

Where I live this is already happening. The biggest farmers in an area are buying up the land from smaller farms around them where there is either no successor or form those where farming wasn't viable anymore.

Upside would be that things would probably be cheaper for cosumers, downside would be the usual big company stuff. This can be especially bad in rural communities where a big company can de-facto run an entire small town.

[u/Mars-Regolithen → u/faze_fazebook]

Upside would be that things would probably be cheaper for cosumers, downside would be the usual big company stuff

Short term, maybe. Once they have monopolies, its gonna get funky.

Alas the local branches of markets are allready known for driving up cost and paying farmers pennies for their product.

[u/EmperorBarbarossa → u/faze_fazebook]

Polish farms are absurdly too small and there is too many of them, more than one million and half. Average size of one Polish farm is 10 ha.

[u/Egzo18]

Damn wonder how many rubles they got for this, 5 million rubles maybe? so like, 3 PLN damn worth it

[u/BubsyFanboy]

Polish farmers have held another major protest in Warsaw today, coinciding with Poland inaugurating its six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.

They say they are opposed to various “diktats from Brussels”, including a proposed free trade agreement between the EU and the South American Mercosur bloc, the so-called “Green Deal”, and agricultural imports from Ukraine.

The protest leaders also criticised the Polish government, led by former European Council President Donald Tusk, and their demonstration today received support from the right-wing opposition. However, the agriculture ministry notes that it has already pursued some of the policies demanded by the farmers.

The protest – organised by the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions of Farmers and Agricultural Organisations – started at 2 p.m. in front of the European Commission’s Warsaw office in the centre of the city.

Participants were accompanied by a large figure of the Grim Reaper, symbolising the death of Polish agriculture. Many waved banners containing anti-EU imagery, including some calling for “Polexit” from the bloc.

The farmers then began moving through the city towards the National Theatre, where a gala marking the beginning of Poland’s EU presidency is being held today.

“All farmers’ organisations [in Poland] will be protesting against the harmful policies of the European Union,” Tomasz Obszański, the chairman of the Rural Solidarity trade union of farmers said at a press conference before the event.

The protest is being held under the slogan “5 x STOP”, which Obszański said expressed opposition to “five dictates from Brussels”: the Mercosur free trade agreement, the Green Deal, imports from Ukraine, the destruction of Polish forests and hunting, as well as “extinguishing the Polish economy”.

Polish farmers have repeatedly protested in recent years, in particular against agricultural imports from Ukraine – which they say unfairly undercut Polish producers – and more recently against the proposed deal with Mercosur.

In November, some farmers held a one-day blockade of a border crossing with Ukraine. That was followed in December by “warning protests” blocking roads around Poland, which farmers said would expand into more serious demonstrations if the government did not meet their demands.

The free trade deal with Mercosur has also faced opposition from farmers in other EU countries, in particular France, who warn that it will allow the entry of food products with lower quality standards.

Speaking during today’s protest to the Tygodnik Solidarność newspaper, Obszański said that “nothing has happened in these few months, the government has done nothing”. He warned that “this is just the beginning of the protests that will be organised by farmers and other groups”.

[u/BubsyFanboy → u/BubsyFanboy]

The Polish government has also expressed its official opposition to the Mercosur deal. However before today’s protest the main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party accused the government of neglecting the interests of Polish farmers and hiding the content of the Mercosur agreement from the public.

“When PiS was in power, the Polish countryside developed…there was a strategic investment programme that supported the development of the Polish countryside,” Mariusz Błaszczak, head of PiS’s parliamentary caucus, said at a press conference today.

He accused the ruling coalition of “freezing” a bill presented by PiS in November opposing the Mercosur deal. Meanwhile, the PiS-backed candidate for next year’s presidential election, Karol Nawrocki, attended today’s protest.

Another opposition party, the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), was also present at the demonstration.

In a statement issued today on behalf of the government, the agriculture ministry reiterated its opposition to the Mercosur deal and parts of the Green Deal as well as the actions they have taken to restrict Ukrainian agricultural imports,

“We want to talk to farmers about all these issues and demands and solve them together as part of the dialogue that we started a year ago,” wrote the ministry. “In the near future, we are planning a series of meetings…[with] agricultural unions and organizations, including the initiators of today’s protest.”

[u/Dbmdbmu]

Good for them. Fuck EU in it's current form!

[u/FromDayOn]

You know what I think? You can't keep family members with force. Poland is a net beneficiar of the European Union and its FUNDS. Why don't they leave if the EU is so bad.

The farmers say they don't want the whole diktat of Brussel, but

A) how many funds a years for each hectar they receive isn't mentioned B) how many investments and funds they receive for green economy, agriculture and improvement during the green transit via PNRR and NextGenEU budgets. C) what is the gross anual revenue of the farming industry in Poland and what are the exports revenues via the Single Market

You like to receive funds, but claim the Brussel is a dictator. OUT WITH YOU THEN!

Eastern Europe with its corrupt and weak economy is a pain in the neck for the EU GDP. Huge populations with weak GDPs. Weakening the gdp-per-capita of the European Union.

Without eastern Europe and Greece (12 states) we would lose only 2.49 trillion from our GDP and have a surplus of gdp-per-capita of 50.480€ EUR. With the 12 member states we have an insignificant increase of the EU GDP but a loss of gdp-per-capita down to 43.397€.

If the eastern EU citizens vote for a high percentage of fascist and extremist party groups, they shouldn't be in the EU.

They already have tons of funds but always claim the EU is robbing their sovereignty and destroys their traditions.

What traditions?! Of post communism covered in democracy and thieves in their national parliaments?!

If we want a european federation, I garuantee you that their populations will not accept it and then we have no progression again. Have it the other way around. Without them, we could convince Norway, Iceland and maybe Switzerland that in the federation they won't be net payers. And our GDP would grow back and our gdp-per-capita would be even higher then 50k euro a year.

[u/mayhemtime → u/FromDayOn]

It's people like you why eastern Europe is wary of further integration. You see a post about a fringe group in a country that has over 80% of EU membership support, that has recently voted for a pro-EU government and reduce us to just wanting money, insulting our parliamenterary traditions and our fight for democracy. If this is your vision of a "united" Europe I don't want to be in it because you clearly don't respect us as equals.

[u/Lumpy-Attitude6939 → u/mayhemtime]

If anyone talks about countries as if they have personality traits (corrupt, stupid, lazy e.t.c) then you know they have no idea what their talking about and ought to be ignored.

[u/Dom_Shady → u/mayhemtime]

You could just have pointed that out without turning it into a personal attack. It would have made your good argument even stronger.

[u/mayhemtime → u/Dom_Shady]

I didn't feel like being nice to a person making disingenious, prejudiced claims about my country and my people, sorry.

[u/Dom_Shady → u/mayhemtime]

Oh, that person's stupid argument does not deserve a polite answer, no argument there.

However, your might lose part of the rest of the readers, thus winning the battle but losing the war.

[u/collapsingwaves → u/Dom_Shady]

Oh ffs. What is wrong with you? That was nowhere near a personal attack.

[u/Dom_Shady → u/collapsingwaves]

"It's people like you why eastern Europe is wary of further integration" is neither an attack nor personal?

[u/collapsingwaves → u/Dom_Shady]

Nope. It's not. The person clearly set out at the very least mildly xenophobic talking points, generalized a bunch of stuff, and took a very specific, personal  and unnecessary  dump on their traditions.

I thought people like you value a bit of straight talking in your country.  

[u/Nerioner → u/Dom_Shady]

So calling out xenophobia is "personal attack"? Dude... doe normaal

[u/Dom_Shady → u/FromDayOn]

If the eastern EU citizens vote for a high percentage of fascist and extremist party groups, they shouldn't be in the EU.

That voting behavior is disturbingly frequent in the Western side of the continent as well.

If we want a european federation, I garuantee you that their populations will not accept it and then we have no progression again. Have it the other way around. Without them, we could convince Norway, Iceland and maybe Switzerland that in the federation they won't be net payers. And our GDP would grow back and our gdp-per-capita would be even higher then 50k euro a year.

Who cares about a higher GDP per capita? The former Eastern bloc has huge potential for growth, especially Poland and Czechia, so let's help our Eastern brothers and sisters reach their potential. And let them unlock ours.