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Politicians by no means fail to seek out methods to say victory after election defeats.
After Sunday’s loss within the Polish presidential elections, Tusk’s shaky authorities is nonetheless portray itself as defender of the countryside. The Polish Folks’s Occasion (PSL), whose Czesław Siekierski is Agriculture Minister, is telling farmers it has prevented Brussels from extending commerce advantages to the farming powerhouse of Ukraine. The present duty-free regime will stop from 5 June.
“Now we have solved the issues with Ukraine. We stopped the uncontrolled movement of grain and restored commerce guidelines,” Siekierski introduced on Wednesday 4 June.
And whereas claiming to have “stopped” imports is an overstatement, PSL highlights a actuality extensively recognized in Brussels: nationwide tensions in Poland weighed closely on the Fee’s commerce negotiations with Kyiv.
On Friday, the EU and Ukraine will revert to pre-war tariff quotas on agri-food exports – a blow that can value Kyiv billions however will largely be taken by Polish farmers as trigger for celebration.
In an announcement final month, PSL stated the day will “go down within the historical past of Polish villages” and that farmers ought to be grateful for Poland’s lobbying within the European capital.
“This can be a enormous success for the federal government. Now we have proven it’s potential to guard the nationwide curiosity with out turning away from Europe” stated Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (PSL).
Polish farmers’ fears of being undercut by Ukrainian merchandise ignited rural tensions through the electoral marketing campaign.
“We merely can’t compete with Ukrainian grain,” Polish farmer Maciej Brzozowski informed me after I visited the Polish countryside in Might. He complained that Ukrainian farmers are topic to far laxer pesticide guidelines. Marginal teams of Polish farmers are nonetheless staging protests about this.
However a lot as PSL would have farmers imagine the tariff victory is their duty, round 79% of Polish farmers voted for right-wing populist Karol Nawrocki (Regulation and Justice, PiS) in Sunday’s presidential run-off. Extremely delicate to this supply of frustration, the Fee had treaded rigorously in negotiations with Ukraine within the run-up to the elections.
Confronted with Nawrocki’s victory, PSL has been fast accountable PiS for farmers’ struggles – saying that Ukraine’s commerce advantages have been granted when the nationalists have been in energy in 2022.
“The PiS authorities (…) agreed to totally open the borders to Ukrainian agricultural merchandise. The choice was made in Brussels with out objection, with out reflection, and not using a plan.”
As soon as once more, the PSL is stretching the information. As Brussels was attempting to throw an financial lifeline to Ukraine, the Polish nationalist authorities sought to please its farmers by imposing an unilateral ban on Ukrainian grain – one which, regardless of the Fee’s warnings, stays in place.
All this may change on the finish of the week, as Ukraine is confronted by pre-war commerce restrictions – which Kyiv warns will value it two-thirds of its 2025 financial progress and result in unquantifiable “ethical” losses.
For the Fee, that is solely a brief stopgap whereas additional negotiations search a longer-term association. Ukraine hopes for a breakthrough this summer time, however Brussels could take its time.
As Brussels stalls and Warsaw stirs, Ukraine will begin paying the invoice.
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Throughout Europe
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