There are some rather desperate slogans on the tractors: “Agriculture, I want to live from it, not die from it” Or “Disappearing peasant”. And others, angry: “They have never seen a cow, but they give stupid instructions” And “European leaders are the prostitutes of multinationals”.
Since its launch in Belgium, clearly inspired by the French mobilization, the peasants’ protest movement has oscillated between a desire for dialogue and radicalism. And this was felt on Tuesday, January 30, in Namur, where the Walloon unions in the sector mobilized their members, before meetings with ministers from the region.
Around noon, Marianne Streel, president of the Walloon Federation of Agriculture, one of the figures of the movement, calls for calm and the search for solutions before her meeting with Willy Borsus, who holds the agriculture portfolio, a partly regionalized domain. However, she says she understands the anger of the youngest, because “They are the ones who will have so much difficulty managing the future”.
Walloons and Flemings
Mr. Borsus, a member of the Reform Movement, a liberal party, now advocates a reduction in the bureaucratic and environmental constraints imposed on the sector: the sudden mobilization of farmers, now imitated by their Flemish colleagues, took leaders by surprise who seemed rather preoccupied with the electoral campaign which is beginning, with a view to the vote (federal, European and regional) in June. Belgium also holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, which increases the demands of the agricultural world.
Author of some public interventions rather favorable to the movement, Mr. Borsus visibly garners more sympathy than his environmentalist colleague, Céline Tellier. The evening before, she was present at a highway blockade. Booed, hissed, targeted by jets of projectiles, she had to retreat. “It imposes stricter standards on us, while it reduces them for polluting industries”, is indignant Gérald Vanderlin, breeder and farmer in the province of Hainaut. One of his colleagues, who wants to remain anonymous, claims to earn 1,000 euros per month, for seventy hours of work per week.
“We are calling for a moratorium on the application of the Green Dealexplains Mme Streel before his meeting with the minister, then later in Brussels with the Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo. This Pact must be based on three pillars, environmental, social and economic, but two of them are missing. » “We are not asking for bonuses, but correct prices”supports Gérald Vanderlin.
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