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Main farming groups shun Brussels demonstration against EU green policies

Farmers drove numerous tractors into Brussels on Tuesday to oppose against the European Union's ecological policies, however the action was avoided by mainstream farming groups who stated it did not reflect their members' concerns.

A couple of days before the European Parliament election on June 6-9, farmers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Germany taken a trip to Brussels to oppose versus EU green policies that organisers stated undermine the competitiveness of European farmers.

We came from Poland, because we know that the source of our problem remains in Brussels. Because we want to alter, deeply modification, the Green Deal and all constraints that pertained to our farms, Damian Murawiec informed at the protest in Laeken, in northern Brussels.

It is the latest in a months-long wave of farmers' protests across Europe, where agricultural workers have denounced low food rates, extreme policy and free-trade deals they say leave them struggling to take on cheap imports.

However with authorities counting around 500 tractors, Tuesday's. mobilisation - arranged by Dutch lobby group Farmers Defence. Force and supported by right-wing and far-right groups - was. smaller sized than the previous farmers' protests held in Brussels. earlier this year.

Farmers Defence Force - whose secretary Sieta van Keimpema. has explained concerns over climate change as hysterical -. said politicians from Belgian far-right celebration Vlaams Belang and. the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group would. address the protest in the afternoon.

Europe's biggest farming lobby Copa Cogeca, and farming. association La Via Campesina each stated they and their members. would not get involved.

A couple of days before the European elections, we decline this. attempt by small groups that have no concrete proposals to. address farmers' issues to hijack farmer issues to press their. own celebration interests, a spokesperson for Via Campesina stated.

(source: Reuters)