Polish farmers blocked roads across the country, as well as checkpoints on the border with Ukraine, on Tuesday to intensify their protest against what they see as unfair European Union policies, Polskie Radio reports, UNN writes.
Details
Polish farmers are protesting in many parts of the country. The protest also includes blocking checkpoints on the Polish-Ukrainian border. Significant traffic difficulties are observed on roads and near border crossings. In particular, due to the farmers' protest, the S7 highway in Poland was blocked in both directions at the Żuławy Wschód interchange. Difficulties with traffic on DK55 and DK90 are also expected, the General Directorate of National Roads and Highways (GDDKiA) in Gdansk said on Tuesday. The agency also reported that in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, exits and entrances to the A1 highway at a number of interchanges are blocked.
Demonstrators oppose the EU's Green Deal policy and trade liberalization with Ukraine. Polish farmers express dissatisfaction with the impact of cheap food imports from Ukraine.
Today, farmers from all over the country, as well as other social groups, joined the protesters at the border crossings in Medyka and Korchova.
"(There will be) a complete blockade of all traffic at the border crossings," Reuters quoted Adrian Vavzhyniak, a spokesman for the Solidarity farmers' union, as saying.
Vavzhyniak said that while military aid would be allowed through, all passenger traffic, not just trucks, would be blocked. He said ports and highways would be blocked.
As part of the protest, grain was poured out of a Ukrainian train.
On Tuesday, February 20, Poland's Ministry of Agriculture is expected to present opportunities to reach an understanding with the protesters. Before the government meeting, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the deputy prime ministers plan to discuss ways to solve the problem with the country's Minister of Agriculture Czeslaw Siekerski.
On February 27, Polish farmers planned a large-scale protest in Warsaw.