Yesterday, massive protests swept across Poland. There is no end in sight to the agricultural strikes.
- There are many emotions during strikes, on all sides. How to continue them? In what form?
- None of the demands of agricultural strikes were formally implemented. There are only promises
Nothing has been formally implemented
The government says that some of the demands have already been implemented or have already been implemented. The only question is which of them? Because so far everything is “in powder”. There are some promises, perhaps even some good will forced through strikes, but there are no formal changes. Except that everything is forced by protests. And the upcoming elections.
To Warsaw, not here – we hear this a lot during protests. Yes, we have been there. Unfortunately, Warsaw showed no willingness to talk. No one approached farmers in the capital with specifics. Basically, there was no willingness to talk. Those in power – whether the previous or current government – behave quite similarly in some respects. Some people ignored the problem for years, others first pretended it didn’t exist. And when it turned out that the scale of the protests was very large, they started making promises. But, as it is often said, making a promise is not a sin. There’s nothing on paper. There is nothing specific. There are only plans made. And before the elections – both local government elections in Poland and those to the European Parliament – promises are basically necessary. And there will certainly be new ones, even irrational ones, impossible to implement. Let us emphasize once again: formally, practically nothing was implemented. Everything “will be there”, “we will introduce it in a moment”.
The number of sophisticated epithets thrown by drivers was sometimes alarming. But let’s not blame the road users. These are huge emotions. Everyone’s nerves are breaking – on both sides. But there is still great understanding for farmers, because many people commented: do we like it? No, of course not. But we understand.
The only question is: how to strike? Farmers have no special opportunities to protest in any other form. None of the strikers have any interest in making everyday life difficult for ordinary residents who actually have no influence on changes. But stopping the strike would mean it’s okay. Topic finished, demands implemented. And such a message would go out into the world. Everywhere we would hear that farmers ended their strikes because their demands were met.
Agreed, there is some good move on the part of the government and Brussels. But these are still just promises – we will delete this, derogate that. None of the promises have come into force yet.
There are a lot of emotions, but we cannot share
A lot of negative comments are poured out about the work of the police. But is it right? Yesterday in Syców she did not allow tractors to enter the S8, after which farmers blocked the expressway on foot. In fact, the police were on standby, the entrances were blocked by intervention groups. But the order to block the entrance was not the police’s decision. This is a decision that has been delegated somewhere higher. The police follow orders. Another issue was whether such psychological pressure was necessary in the form of preparing the police for intervention? Moreover, the decision was not fully thought out – the ban on tractors entering S8 only intensified the difficulties, because the “old” eighth was additionally blocked.
People often come back to what happened in Warsaw. Perhaps there was abuse, I don’t deny that. But there are always emotions on both sides. And during protests, these are considerable. There was probably a provocation, someone lost their nerve.
Meanwhile, it must also be said that police officers often say privately: listen, we are with you. We understand you. We do our job here.
Negative information spreads quickly. But police officers often cooperate with farmers in an exemplary manner during protests. This also needs to be said. We cannot share. Someone wants society to have different interests. the principle of divide and conquer is as relevant as ever. Let’s not be divided – we are on this side of the barricade, you are on this one.
There is no end in sight to disinformation – is it intentional?
Unfortunately, once again we have massive disinformation. The way the agricultural protests are shown is appalling. Even if the mainstream media (but even the local ones) talk to the strike leaders, their statements are presented biased and often placed in the wrong context. How many times have we heard about farmers going on strike against healthy food? That the strikes benefit Russia? Statements with farmers are cropped and only fragments are included. This is not always the case, but unfortunately very often.
This is not the end of strikes. Will there be de-escalation? Much depends on the actions of the government and Brussels. We farmers are fighting for our survival. There is no abuse here. We are criticized for the equipment we use. They say why do you run these farms, change your profession. This is very shallow. But such shallow arguments are the most powerful. We are therefore waiting for Stary, Jelcze and Tatry to appear on the streets again instead of new cars in company fleets. In fact, farmers are blamed for investing and wanting to develop their farms. Similarly with comments like change your profession. Apart from sentimental issues. Do the authors of these comments take into account that this is not just a job change? What to do with loans that were supposed to support the development of farms? A farm is not something you simply take and sell. Giving up agricultural production on farms that have invested large amounts of money in their development is not easy.
The most important thing is not to share. Without strong agriculture, our country will be very weak, dependent on imports and powerful agroholdings. But you have to play in one team. Because we and consumers are in the same boat. However, farmers are already affected by the problems of the extremes of the Green Deal and uncontrolled imports. Consumers will feel these effects soon.
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