AMN
Amid escalating tensions in Europe, Spanish and Italian farmers join protest that aims to press governments to ease environmental rules and shield them from rising costs and cheap imports.
The French government sent armoured vehicles to protect a wholesale food market in Paris today, in a sign of escalating tensions as farmers blocked highways in France and Belgium.
While protests have so far been largely peaceful, France police arrested 18 people today amid standoffs. Those arrested were driving tractors and trying to block the wholesale food market at Rungis in Paris, a hub for produce for France and beyond, a police prefecture source said. So far, police had let farmers block highways without stepping in.
As European Union leaders are set to meet tomorrow, the bloc’s executive Commission made proposals to limit farm imports from Ukraine and loosen some green regulations. However, farmers said that these measures are not going to quell protests and they would continue to block highways and ports until all their demands were met.