As Polish farmers are starting a new round of mass protests across the country on Wednesday, some of the action will take place close to Lithuania. The week-long campaign is planned some 8 kilometres from the border and could disrupt traffic on the A5 motorway, Lithuanian police said on Tuesday.
The president of the Lithuanian Chamber of Agriculture says the new protest will not be directed against Lithuania. Meanwhile, the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) says there may be around 200 tractors on the road, but drivers will be able to bypass them.
Polish media report that farmers’ protests are planned in more than 500 places across the country. According to TVN Warszawa, the protestors oppose the European Green Deal and imports of cheaper agricultural and food products from third countries, calling it unfair competition.
Giedrius Misutis, the VSAT spokesman, says he has received information that around 200 farmers with tractors would gather on the road leading from Lithuania, but there would be diversions, so there should be no traffic jams.
“A kind of blockade is being organised, and there was a blockade last time, but it was not a real blockade,” he told BNS.
Linava, the national road carriers’ association, has told BNS that mass protests will take place across Poland from Wednesday and that roadblocks are likely.
For his part, Arūnas Svitojus, president of the Chamber of Agriculture, said the planned protest would not be directed against Lithuania.
“I have attended a meeting in Poland and we agreed with the farmers they will not block Budzisko [the former Kalvarija-Budzisko border checkpoint] to avoid any kind of international conflict there,” Svitojus told BNS.
“They were planning protests all over Poland, they have more problems with Russian grain, and Ukrainian grain. (...) Their prime minister failed to give them something and they might block hundreds, all the roundabouts in Poland tomorrow,” he said.
According to Lithuanian police, more officers will be deployed at the border near the former Kalvarija checkpoint to help manage traffic flows.
On March 7, Polish farmers ended their six-day protest at the border with Lithuania when they checked vehicles to see what they were transporting from Lithuania. They said they were checking for Ukrainian grain going to Poland.
Around 6,000 trucks use this road every day.
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