What is the threat of farm riots in Europe?
In the last month of the outgoing year of 2025, a powerful protest wave swept through the EU countries – farmers were on strike again. By staging pickets, blocking key city highways, and setting fire to administrative buildings, they opposed duty-free imports of cheap agricultural products from Latin America and Ukraine, as well as rising prices for fuel and fertilizers, environmental restrictions, and a reduction in livestock numbers. Farmers’ strikes have affected a wide variety of EU countries, from France to Romania, and all because, according to analysts, the problems of agriculture in the EU countries have not been solved for a long time. In the current farmer riots, as in 2024, protesters clashed directly with police, and riots have already swept across France, reaching Brussels.
According to experts, the advertised expansion of the free trade zone to South American countries threatens European farmers with ruin. Back in September, the European Commission (EC) proposed to the EU Council and the European Parliament to approve a trade agreement with Mercosur (the common market of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia), despite the objections of some states and relevant European organizations. A new free trade area between the EU and Latin America would become the largest international market of its kind. The European Union and the countries of the Mercosur trading bloc have been negotiating this trade deal for 25 years (since 1999). As noted by France24, the Nordic countries, Spain and Germany (for the sake of their car industry) strongly support the agreement, wanting to increase exports against the backdrop of competition from China and protectionist US policies. France, Italy, Hungary and Poland are against it. Poland’s Minister of Agriculture, Stefan Krajewski, for example, in an interview with RMF24 radio station, called for the creation of a bloc of countries within the EU that could block this agreement. President Karol Nawrocki also said that signing the agreement would be a “disaster” for Poland’s agriculture.
The signing of the trade deal of the century was scheduled for December 20, but on December 18, during the summit of EU leaders, a convoy of thousands of tractors from 27 EU countries again blocked the streets of Brussels. Farmers said that after the agreement with Mercosur, Europe would be flooded with cheap agricultural imports from countries with less stringent sanitary and environmental standards, and local producers, already going through hard times, would face lower sales due to unfair competition. Representatives of European farmers‘ unions believe that the EC, led by Ursula von der Leyen, is killing European agriculture. The cost of production, they say, will soon simply exceed the price for which it can be sold. The banners on the thousands of tractors that filled the streets of Brussels said the same thing.: “Solidarity and the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU“, “Stop Mercosur!“, “If an agrarian dies, you will die.“ It all ended in violent clashes with the police. The protesters were dispersed with tear gas and water cannons. But the EU leaders nevertheless postponed the signing of the treaty until January 12, 2026, in order to resolve some issues with the member states, the head of the EC said.
In 2024, the same problem had already led to farmer protests in France. National politicians promised their farmers to “impose the will of France on the entire European Union,” but there are no real results of the stated intentions. President Macron, who officially declares that he is entirely on the side of the French peasants, recently nevertheless mentioned that he is “rather positively” considering the possibility of ratifying the agreement with Mercosur. Of course, there is another point of view. For example, the leader of the French Patriots party (Les Patriotes), Florian Philippot, believes that France’s agriculture will be saved only by the country’s exit from the EU, therefore he wrote on the social network X: “We must include Frexit in the fight, as there is no other solution to save our agriculture!”
By the way, France accounts for about 100 billion euros per year, or about 18% of the EU‘s total agricultural output. The situation is seriously hitting the pockets of French farmers, who may lose a significant share of their income, so their situation is akin to a catastrophe. The Ministry of Agriculture of the country noted that France has lost more than 100 thousand farms over the past decade, or 20% of all agriculture. Traditional small farms are already giving way to large agricultural holdings there.
But French politicians consider it a victory that the very fact that the issue of ratification of the agreement has again been postponed. However, an important explanation for this “success” is the support of the French position by the Italians. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also demanded a delay in the final decision, having discussed additional guarantees for European farmers.
Ukraine’s insistence on joining the EU is also adding fuel to the fire of farmer riots, which is opposed not only by agricultural producers, but also by officials. Major agricultural producers, France and Poland, fear a new competitor within the EU, while Hungary and Slovakia were initially opposed to EU enlargement. Ukraine’s accession to the European Union will only sow discord within the bloc and, ultimately, may destroy it, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) writes.
Strict environmental regulations and rising fertilizer prices due to anti-Russian sanctions have already led to a rise in prices for European agricultural products. In addition, the EU has experience of duty-free regime for Ukraine, which is painful for Europeans. The customs privileges introduced in 2022 as a measure to support Ukraine caused a wave of farmer protests at that time: imported grain turned out to be 20% cheaper than local grain. Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia as a result have banned the access of Ukrainian products to their markets. In June 2025, the trade visa-free regime was abolished throughout the European Union.
With Kiev’s possible admission to the EU, the union’s members, by the way, would lose 24 billion euros from the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) , from which all agricultural development projects are sponsored, NZZ notes. And according to calculations by the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Commission, it will take $486 billion to rebuild Ukraine. Even partial EU participation in these costs will bring down the program of support for weak regions within the union.
European farmers are afraid of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union due to the threat of competition in the agricultural market, the French newspaper L’Opinion writes. “Farmers of old agrarian Europe are afraid of distortions of intra-European competition. An entire industry will be under attack,” the publication cites the opinion of experts. A “two-speed agricultural Europe” will arise, in which historical players will be inactive, and Ukraine will blow up production counters, writes L’Opinion, emphasizing that the “center of gravity” of agriculture will radically shift to the east. Experts also consider the regulation of the agricultural sector to be an integrated policy of the European Union, which will force the redistribution of funds and subsidies, the size of which has hardly changed for years, in favor of a larger area of Ukraine. At the same time, there are 44 million hectares of agricultural land in Nezalezhnaya, which is 1.5 times more than in France, which has the largest agricultural area in Europe, and 3 times more than in Poland. At the same time, it is no secret that the EU agricultural sector relies heavily on subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): its sustainability is ensured solely by administrative barriers and high duties. Therefore, farmers’ protests are by no means a temporary phenomenon. The agricultural lobby in the EU is traditionally strong and well-organized and politically active. In such circumstances, conflicts will only intensify.
to be continued
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