Last month, an image of soup being thrown at the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre Museum in Paris went viral.
The footage shared by French news agency CL Press showed one woman throwing a liquid over the Leonardo Da Vinci painting, which is protected by glass. Her and another woman wearing t-shirts that said ‘Riposte Alimentaire’, which translates to ‘food response’ in English, were arrested.
It turned out the reason for this attack on the iconic painting was inspired by protests by farmers across France.
The protesters were heard shouting: “Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work.”
Since January, protests by farmers have ramped up across France, Germany, and other countries in the EU. But why are farmers protesting?
Farmer concerns
There are a number of issues that farmers are protesting, including increasing diesel costs and increased competition from imports. Much of the anger fuelling the protests across Europe are due to EU policies.
Farmer unions in France lifted their blockades after French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced new measures for farmers, including accelerating Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments.
In Germany, farmers blocked Berlin with tractors in protest against plans to end farmer’s tax breaks for agricultural diesel.
One major point of concern in Eastern Europe is Ukrainian arable imports.
The lifting of restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural imports by the EU has had a negative impact on farmers in neighbouring countries such as Poland and Romania, where prices have fallen for local produce.
On January 24, protests kicked off in Poland over imports from Ukraine. Protests have also taken place in Latvia over imports.
Reaction in Ireland
Irish farmers are also showing solidarity towards their European counterparts.
Last month the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) national council held an emergency meeting to discuss the Europe-wide protests.
On Tuesday January 30, over 20 farmers showed their solidarity with protesters in France and Germany by gathering with tractors in Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford.
The chair of Kilmacthomas IFA Luke Casey told the Irish Farmers Journal: “We just wanted to recognise what our counterparts in Europe stand for and the solidarity shown last night was very noticeable.”
