Farmers will no longer take to the roads to protest for the time being. The leaders of the farmers’ protests wrote this in a joint statement. They want to wait for a consultation with Agriculture Minister Piet Adema.
Farmers Defense Force and the leaders of the so-called tractor groups promise a ‘new wave of spontaneous protests’ if the consultation between Adema and a delegation of farmers’ representatives does not yield any results. “But we will respect these consultations and give the negotiating parties some time,” the parties said in a statement.
Farmers took to the road last week after colleagues in Belgium and France did the same. From Thursday evening, the activists blocked the A4 at the Zandvliet exit, the A67 at the Hapert exit and the A16 at Hazeldonk. In several places, such as Reusel and Hoogstraten in Belgium, fires also raged on the roadsides. Farmers made themselves heard at the provincial government building in Den Bosch on Friday.
The fire spread especially in Brussels, where there was an EU summit on agricultural policy in Europe.
Frustrations
The blockages caused inconvenience for people who had to cross the border. “The A67 is an important connection for freight traffic to Belgium, France and Southern Europe. Blocking this connection is therefore a catastrophe for the transport sector,” a spokesperson for Transport and Logistiek Nederland said last week.
These are the farmers who blocked the border between the Netherlands and Belgium: