Marine Le Pen stages her support for the agricultural sector on board a tractor, and the far-right Viktor Orbán also sends a similar message when he meets in Brussels with farmers protesting against the European Union. In this sense, Carme Colomina, CIDOB researcher explains that “what he does the extreme right is capitalizing on fearswhether it be the fear of immigration, the fear of the ecological transition…”.

In Italy, Germany, Poland, Ireland and Greece thousands of tractors have taken to the roads in recent weeks, and the extreme right has positioned itself with them behind the barricades. “There is no field that better control the extreme right than emotions. All populist rhetoric is based on that rural-urban divide, the good people versus the elites of Brussels…”, says Miriam Martínez-Bascuñán, professor of Political Science at the UAM.

The pressure is beginning to bear fruit. And it is that the European Commission has proposed making some requirements more flexible of the Common Agricultural Policy. “We are seeing a certain regression in the climate commitment. Not only the extreme right, but also the European People’s Party has tried to start stepping on the brakes,” says Carme Colomina, CIDOB researcher.

A recent poll indicates that Identity and Democracy, the far-right group in the European Parliament, could go from fifth to third political force in the June 9 elections. Given this situation, Martínez-Bascuñán defends that “it must be made clear that the ecological model Not only is more virtuous, but also more convenientand this has to be contrasted with the ‘Lepenista’ project.”

The extreme right continues to fuel the firebut there are also agricultural leaders who distance themselves and ask to depoliticize the conflict.