'Civil war!' Furious farmers storm EU heartland as police overwhelmed by protest
Farmers from across several European nations have been taking their anger against their governments and Brussels to the street for several weeks now.
Angry farmers have unleashed their fury in the streets of Brussels, in the Maalbeek area located only minutes away from the European Parliament.
Dozens of tractors have been lining up in the city's streets since the early hours of February 26, blocking some of the key arteries in the European quarter.
Chaos descended as some of the protesters started removing the blocks placed in front of their vehicles by police and advanced forward, despite officers trying to prevent them from doing so by standing in their way.
A clip shared on social media platform X by journalist James Kanter shows several tractors moving around the police barriers and vans, with some narrowingly avoiding the officers in the street.
As the farmers overwhelmed the police force, the journalist claimed EU officials said: "It looks like civil war."
Chaotic videos and pictures from the scene showed burning tyres piled up in the middle of the street. A wood chipper was also spotted operating in the middle of the road, with sawdust lying in the street around it.
Water cannons were seemingly used in a bid to quash the fires and the protest.
Police were expecting the protest, and announced on the weekend that Rue de la Loi, between Schuman and the Reyers tunnel heading from E40 towards the centre, and the Cinquantenaire tunnel would remain closed to traffic from 5am GMT (6am local time) onwards on Monday.
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Authorities added there was the risk for nearby streets to also be affected by the protests, and urged members of the public not to drive to Brussels on the day, but to use public transport instead.
Members of the farmers' organisations FUGEA, MAP and Boerenforum organised the protests in response to the decisions taken by Brussels following the EU-wide protests that raged during January and early February, focused on rising costs of production, falling profits and policies enforced by the bloc farmers deem harmful.
The European Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, proposed postponing the requirement to leave four percent of arable land fallow each year and imposing restrictions on imports of eggs, sugar and poultry from Ukraine.
The cheaper imports from Ukraine have been a bone of contention between the EU and farmers for months, with workers in Poland being the first to raise their discontent in 2023 after the war-torn nation started importing more of its products via land in response to the collapsed Black Sea Grain Deal with Russia.
But farmers are also unhappy with the EU-Mercosur agreement, which they say would flood the bloc with Latin American beef.
Moreover, the farmers are advocating for ending EU free trade agreements and enforcing a more robust Common Agricultural Policy in support of their industry.