1,300 Tractors surround European Parliament in farmer protest: Blockades, fires, and egg throwing

Author: Newsroom  | Published: February 1, 2024

Protesters bring down statue: Luxembourg square’s historic monument altered by farmers

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Protesters smashed a historic statue, threw stones and eggs and clashed with police officers when they tried to approach the parliament.

More than a thousand tractors and farm machinery have blocked roads in Brussels around the site where the ’27’ summit is currently taking place, making it clear that the anger of farmers in Europe is not abating despite concessions from the Commission.

Protesters lit pallet fires and shouted slogans, and around 10.30am tensions with police forces in the area were triggered when farmers attempted to knock down fences erected by police in front of the parliament. The police repelled them with water jets and used tear gas.

Shortly after 13:00, the fires were extinguished, but the farmers remained outside the European Parliament, where heavy police forces remained.

Although they had pledged that their protests would be peaceful in Brussels, some protesters began, on Thursday morning, to throw fireworks, stones and eggs towards the European Parliament and the police.

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International media reported that the farmers knocked down a statue from its place at the historic monument on Luxembourg Square dedicated to John Cockerill, an English-born industrialist who became a prominent businessman in Belgium.

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