Nigel Farage has said the farmer protests in France are a sign of a “very major Eurosceptic movement” across Europe.
Farmers blocked major highways to Paris yesterday as similar demonstrations took place in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands over falling incomes and environmental regulations.
Mr Farage said he believes the protests mean there will be an increase in support for eurosceptic parties in this year’s European Elections.
The former Ukip leader told GB News: “President Macron is in such a flap over this that he’s gone to Brussels to meet the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“This is not the first big farmers’ protest. I know for the French, protesting is almost like a national sport.
“But we saw it happening on the streets of Germany just a few weeks ago. We saw it happening in The Netherlands last year and then dramatic political change. There are even farmers’ protests taking place in Italy.
“There are two big things going on. The first is the push towards net zero: The desire in many cases to get farmers off the land, not to produce beef.
“And even in this country, you can go onto Defra’s website, and they’ll tell you how, as a farmer, you can be paid to stop farming and take your land out of production and turn it over to rewilding.
“Net Zero targets are a big part of this and secondly, it’s regulation, particularly on substances around nitrogen.
“And what the farmers of Europe are saying is whilst their own governments and their own bureaucracies and their own regulators are bad enough, it’s even worse when it comes from the European Commission in Brussels and there’s nothing they can do in elections to change any of it.
“And this is now becoming a very, very major Eurosceptic movement right across Europe.
“And I think we’re headed for some fascinating European election results that will take place in June of this year.”
Farmers said their aim was to stop food deliveries reaching supermarkets as 15,000 police were deployed to block tractors entering the capital and other cities.
