Protests
Also in Zeebrugge, the port may not be blocked on Thursday by protest actions by farmers, under penalty of penalty. A Bruges court decided this. Previously, the court of first instance in Antwerp had issued the same ban for the port of Antwerp.
It was Apzi-Voka West Flanders that confirmed the news about the ban in Zeebrugge on Wednesday evening. The association of Zeebrugge port companies had submitted a petition to the court for this. to avoid blockades of the port by farmers on Thursday.
Also in Antwerp, the port authority, together with North Sea Port (the port of Ghent), the professional associations and individual companies in the port area, went to court to prevent a threatened blockade of the port by demonstrating farmers. Anyone who disregards the ban will have to pay a penalty of 1,000 euros per person per hour.
Farmers’ organizations Farmers Defense Force and United Young Farmers had announced that they would organize filter blockades at the ports of Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Ghent on Thursday. It is mainly young farmers who are taking the action.
De Ridder: “Road blocks do not fall under the right to demonstrate”
Chairman Annick De Ridder (N-VA) of Port of Antwerp-Bruges, who is also a port alderman, states in a response to “The right to demonstrate is clearly defined by the legislation,” she says. “However, this does not include closing roads and companies and preventing the passage of goods and, especially, the many thousands of employees.”
De Ridder says he understands the concerns that farmers have about the future of their companies and sector. “But you choose dialogue and do not block – because that is possible with a number of tractors – the heart of our economy, with its 1,400 companies and 165,000 direct and indirect employees,” she says.
It is unclear whether the protests will still take place. Bart Dickens of the farmers’ movement Farmers Defense Force says he does not know exactly what the protests will entail. Farmers Defense Force does not organize the actions themselves, he says. The plans are made in WhatsApp groups. Ghent University professor Benedikt Sas, who speaks on behalf of “different groups”, also does not know what any actions will entail.
By blocking the ports, the farmers want to point out that it is mainly industry that emits nitrogen, and not agriculture. Farmers across Europe have been taking action for months. These are mainly aimed at overly strict (European) environmental regulations and declining incomes.
