WARSAW: Protesting farmers clashed with police outside the parliament building in Warsaw on Wednesday, with police using pepper spray and accusing some participants of violence against security forces.
Thousands of farmers rallied in the Polish capital, burning tires and throwing firecrackers as they demanded an end to cheap imports and environmental regulations they say are damaging their livelihoods.
“Due to physical aggression against police officers by some protesting people. It was necessary to use direct coercive measures,” Warsaw police wrote in a post on X.
“Behavior that threatens the safety of our officers, including throwing paving stones at them, is not to be taken lightly and requires a firm and decisive response.”
They added that several officers were injured and about a dozen people were detained.
A Reuters witness saw police pepper spray a protester holding a Polish flag and another throw an object at police shortly afterwards.
Local media footage showed several protesters entering the parliament grounds before being beaten back by police.
Earlier on Wednesday, some of the protesters carried and then burned a coffin with the words “farmer, lived 20 years, killed by the Green Deal” as they thronged the street outside the prime minister’s office, honking horns and holding Polish flags. above before marching to Parliament.
Television footage showed tractors on the outskirts of Warsaw blocking entry into the city and farmers blocking roads elsewhere in the country.
Farmers across the European Union are calling for changes to the restrictions imposed on them by the bloc’s Green Deal plan to combat climate change and for the re-imposition of tariffs on agricultural imports from Ukraine, which were lifted after the Russian invasion.
In Poland, it has created a delicate balance for Donald Tusk’s government in a year when it faces both local and European elections as it tries to address farmers’ concerns while maintaining firm support for Kiev.
The farmers, who fulfilled their promise to return to Warsaw after thousands of them marched through the city a week ago, were supported by Poland’s largest trade union NSZZ Solidarnosc, as well as hunters and forest workers.
Tusk said the market disruption was not only caused by agricultural products from Ukraine, but also those from Russia and its ally Belarus.
He said on Monday that Poland plans to ask the European Union to ban the import of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus.