Lithuanian farmers continue their protests against the government’s agricultural policy, which they started in early January, as several thousand farmers and their supporters gathered on Wednesday for a rally outside the government office in central Vilnius.
They brought around one thousands tractors and forestry trucks to central Vilnius on Tuesday.
“We say enough is enough, enough of the anti-agriculture policy, enough of the misinformation, enough of the dirt on agriculture, and we are not backing down from our demands. We will wait for the government’s decisions, and with your support and force we will try to achieve the fairest solutions for agriculture,” Ignas Hofmanas, chair of the Lithuanian Agriculture Council, the organiser of the protest, told the crowd. “Who knows, maybe we will have to stay longer in Vilnius, or maybe we will have to come back.”
Police officers supervising the rally told BNS that about 3,000 people were protesting outside the government office.
People are holding banners saying “No farmers, no food, no future” or “Without us, no bread or sausage”. One of the banners features cows standing in front of a guillotine labelled “the government”. Some of the protesters are banging drums and metal barrels.
When a video of Agriculture Minister Kęstutis Navickas speaking about farmers’ problems in early 2023 was shown from the stage, protesters booed him.
Dainius Arlauskas, a representative of the Lithuanian Agriculture Council, told BNS earlier that Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Deputy Agriculture Minister Egidijus Giedraitis, Agriculture Minister Kęstutis Navickas, Environment Minister Simonas Gentvilas, and Viktoras Pranckietis, chair of the parliamentary Committee on Rural Affairs, had all been invited to address the crowd.
Ieva Skarelytė, spokeswoman for the prime minister, told BNS that the prime minister would not go out to meet with the farmers because she had already met with them earlier.
The organisers of the protest had agreed with the Vilnius authorities on a rally involving 3,500 people, and the protest is expected to last two days. The farmers had also made arrangements with the authorities regarding the parking of tractors on the city’s central streets.
Central Gedimino Avenue is closed to car traffic, but cars can cross it at some junctions. Only police vehicles and ambulances can pass the tractors on the avenue.
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