A rally of several thousand farmers clashed with police in front of the  parliament in Warsaw on March 6, as protests against the European Union’s Green Deal continue to rock Poland and Europe.

Polish farmers once again took to the streets after Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised them last week he would push the EU to revise or give up on some of the Green Deal’s provisions affecting agriculture.

The protesters have leverage over the Tusk-led government, which is campaigning ahead of local elections on April 7, hoping it can erode the support for the opposition’s Law and Justice (PiS) party in its traditional rural strongholds.  The government has long said now that it is sympathetic to farmers’ demands, wary that their anger could cost them votes in the April elections. 

Farmers want the EU to can the Green Deal and end the imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, which, they claim, has depressed prices on the Polish market.

The rally began peacefully but soon descended into scuffles with the police, as it reached the parliament buildings.

The police said some protesters threw cobblestones at the policemen. “A few policemen were injured. Several dozen people have been detained,” the police said on X after containing the rally’s most violent part.

The rally took place as the parliament was in session. As the sounds of tear gas being fired reached the plenary, the ongoing debate on the rule of law detoured to a fierce argument between the ruling majority and the opposition about the unrest.

The government said provocateurs nudged the crowd to start the scuffles, as the farmers had no reason to get violent in the wake of PM Tusk's promises made last week. The opposition lashed out at the police for bringing down the protesters, including one man with a Polish flag, and allegedly throwing stones and cobblestones at the rallying people.

“The opposition, which campaigned under the slogan of ‘standing firm for the Polish uniform’, is now in love with those who throw paving stones at the policemen,” Home Minister Marcin Kierwinski said on X.

Meanwhile, the EU’s Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski – who is Polish – told private broadcaster Polsat News that the Commission was about to “bin the Green Deal”.

The Commission appeared to deny Wojciechowski’s comments, saying in a statement he only spoke as a "private person in a way that does not reflect the Commission’s official position".