Thousands of #farmers continued their strikes across the #European Union Thursday, as law makers across the block failed to meet their demands once more.
Hundreds of tractors were seen blocking the motorways leading to #Paris, as well as the centers of #Brussels and #Thessaloniki, as roadblocks and flaming hay bails continued to impede traffic amid scuffles with police.
CGTN’s Ross Cullen, Toni Waterman and Evangelo Sipsas bring you the latest from the front lines of the farmers’ strikes.
Hundreds of tractors were seen blocking the motorways leading to #Paris, as well as the centers of #Brussels and #Thessaloniki, as roadblocks and flaming hay bails continued to impede traffic amid scuffles with police.
CGTN’s Ross Cullen, Toni Waterman and Evangelo Sipsas bring you the latest from the front lines of the farmers’ strikes.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [crowd shouting]
00:07 Across Europe, farmers are taken to the streets
00:10 to protest over wages, taxes and import duties.
00:14 From Athens to Paris and Brussels.
00:16 Protests have caused disruption.
00:19 But have also caught the attention of the public and politicians.
00:22 [crowd shouting]
00:26 Small groups try to tear down the barriers erected in front of the European Parliament,
00:31 which is this building here behind me.
00:34 The demonstrators did manage to set off fires and fireworks as well.
00:38 They were throwing eggs at one point,
00:40 and police responded by throwing tear gas and spraying water hoses.
00:44 Police do estimate that more than a thousand tractors are here in the center of the Belgian capital.
00:50 France's major farmers unions say they will suspend blockages
00:54 like the one here on the A6 motorway,
00:57 after the government promised a large bundle of concessions on Thursday,
01:01 including financial support and a crackdown on supermarkets importing cheaper alternatives.
01:07 They have given the government until the end of February to release concrete details.
01:12 If they don't, farmers say they'll once again take to the streets.
01:16 I'm outside of Thessaloniki where hundreds of tractors are rolling into the city
01:22 on an occasion of an agricultural exhibition held here in Greece.
01:27 The farmers gathered are demonstrating for compensation,
01:31 compensation from last September's floods,
01:35 where infrastructure, houses, businesses, plant production and livestock were destroyed in the Thessaloniki region.
01:43 But the farmers also have another demand.
01:45 They want the government to build better infrastructure projects
01:50 protect them from any future extreme weather phenomena.