Linas Jegelevičius
A fleet of over 1 500 tractors and logging trucks has been roaring and rattling in the centre of Vilnius since Tuesday, the 23rd of January, and the strike of the country’s farmers was likely to extend beyond Friday.
An alternative rally comprising a couple dozen environmentalists, who insist that the satisfaction of farmers’ demands would come only at the expense of environment, was also held in Vilnius center this week.
In all, around 3 000 farmers protested in the front of the government building
against its agricultural policies, specifically, a hike in the excise duty on liquefied petroleum gas, the termination of a reduced excise tax rate for their trucks, the mandatory requirement on the restoration of permanent grasslands, as well as the expansion of protected areas, the dairy crisis, Russian grain imports and other issues.
Approached by BNN, Žilvinas Augustinavičius, chairman of the Lithuanian Farmers Union’s Anykščiai district affiliate, said that 33 local farmers travelled in their heavy machinery, tractors mostly, to Vilnius.
“We are supporting the demands fully. Although it remains to be seen if the Government and the Agriculture ministry will satisfy all our demands, however, some of them – like cancelling the higher excise duty on petroleum gas and calling off new rules on marked, i.e. untaxed fuel duel – were taken into consideration before the start of the protest. The respective law amendments should be included and deliberated in the Seimas’ spring session,” he said.
Under the existing rules, green diesel can no longer be used in vehicles
that can be used for purposes other than agriculture, such as trucks, trailers, etc. The protesters are urging to call off the new rules on so-called marked, i.e. untaxed fuel.
Farmers scold the government for recently scrapped tax exemptions on petroleum gas. The excise duty now stands at a staggering 304.1 euros per tonne, when the duty is zero in Latvia and below 50 euros in Germany. Farmers demand that the exemption be reinstated.
Farmers also bristle against the Lithuanian Government and the Agriculture Ministry’s decision to remove so-called buffer zones around water bodies and protected areas from their land. They demand that when these zones are expanded, it not be done at their expense or that they are compensated.
Farmers are also asking the government to stop the transit of Russian grain through Lithuania. As the European Union has not put sanctions on Russian food products, some farmers claim that this pushes down the prices of their grain exports.
Farmers are also demanding to allow them to keep at least 5% of their agricultural land as grasslands,
which enable them not to cultivate it for at least five years. Now, if the ratio falls below 5%, the National Paying Agency obliges farmers to restore it. Those farmers that do not rear livestock say it makes no economic sense for them to keep part of their land unused.
Farmers’ demands also include ensuring a minimum above-cost price at which processors buy their milk. A solution to the problems related to the purchase of milk. This is an old issue, last year dairy farmers held protests across Lithuania following a sharp drop in raw milk prices. They were giving away free milk and erecting wooden crosses in front of the administrative buildings of processors and retailers.
Even before the farmers’ protest commenced,
Agriculture Minister Kęstutis Navickas told LRT Radio that he had taken steps to “correct the mistakes made”. He specifically meant the raised taxes on petroleum gas and marked fuel.
“Draft legislation has been published in the Register of Legislative Acts on reintroducing the former regime on green diesel, as well as reducing the excise duty on petroleum gas to 41 euros [per tonne],” the minister was quoted as saying.
He also said that the ministry would continue to talk with farmers about their remaining demands.
Some protesting farmers admitted that the journey to Vilnius cost them about 300 euros.
PM Ingrida Šimonyte refused to meet with the farmers, explaining that her schedule was fully booked. Meanwhile, Agriculture minister Kestutis Navickas and Environment Minister Simonas Gentvilas met with protesters on Wednesday, the 24th of January, but were booed and whistled off.
Danas Arlauskas, president of Lithuania’s Employers Confederation, told BNN that Lithuanian farmers’ problems extend well beyond Lithuania.
“Right now, I am in Germany talking to a couple of German farmers. And they are telling me the same what I am hearing from our Lithuanian farmers – farmers, wherever they are in Europe, are missing clarity and stability regarding their future. The European Commission has adopted its green directive and auxiliary documents without heeding farmers’ concerns. The Germans tell me clearly: “We are not ready for it. If it is implemented as it is, we will go bankrupt, which means detrimental consequences: much higher food prices, tensions.
All farmers want to know is what will the EU agricultural policies be like in 5 or 10 years
from now. In a nutshell, a vision and strategy for agriculture is needed as much as for environment,” he said.
Approached by BNN, Vytautas Dumbliauskas, associate professor of Vilnius Mykolas Romeris University, said that, although the protest organizers deny any political motifs, it is clear that the local municipalities with mostly Social Democrats and Farmers and Greens Unionists on the councils will benefit from the protest in Vilnius.
“It is not a secret that big landowners belong to the two parties. However, the trigger of the protest was the insane decision of the environment minister, Simonas Gentvilas, to raise the excise duty suddenly and drastically from zero to 300 euros per ton, when the duty in Latvia is zero and, in Germany, it is below 50 euros,” he told BNN.
Both Lithuanian residents and businesses using gas used in households and production were shocked by the raise.
Meanwhile, several dozen environmentalists staged a counter-protest in Vilnius
on Wednesday, asking the government not to give in the farmers’ demand, which they believe would compromise environmental protection. The green protesters insist that any concessions during talks with farmers would come at the expense of environmental protection.
The activists were displaying banners with information about the extinction of bird species, climate change data, and why it is necessary to preserve endangered grasslands.
Edmundas Greimas of the Lithuanian Fund for Nature told BNS, a Lithuanian newswire, that the ecological situation in agriculture has been deteriorating over the last 20 years amid intensifying farming and a lack of sustainable solutions. And when the government decides to take measures, farmers do not take this into account.
“I do understand that farmers are unhappy, and maybe the measures are radical, maybe they are too sudden, maybe they should have been taken in smaller steps, but we, as representatives of society and nature, do not like it, we do not like the fact that biodiversity is disappearing, that they plough up to the edge of a ditch or a stream, and that all the fertilisers are getting there,” Greimas told BNS.
According to him,
more and more fertilisers are flowing from Lithuania into the Baltic Sea,
causing blooms, and all countries are concerned, nobody knows how to solve the problem. The Environment Ministry has proposed three-meter water protection zones, but farmers say they can’t do a single meter and they want to plough everywhere.
Meanwhile, amid the protests, President Gitanas Nausėda said he sees political will from the government to tackle the mistakes that sparked farmers’ protest in Vilnius.
“We have to admit that certain mistakes, distortions or oversteps, if they can be described that way, have been made,” he said.
Follow us on Facebook and X!