Tear gas was fired at protesting farmers who took over Brussels yesterday to protest at the CAP reform package being negotiated by farm ministers.
An estimated 50,000 farmers including, over 100 members of the IFA, Macra na Feirme and ICOS, were among the marchers who paraded along a 6.5 kilometre route which had been cordoned off by over 3,000 police from early yesterday.
The police warned residents there could be trouble and advised shop and restaurant owners along the route to close down. Schools were closed and Commission and Parliament staff were given the day off as farmers from all over the EU took over a strangely deserted city.
In freezing conditions and sometimes lashed by flurries of snow, the marchers listened to speeches from farm leaders in the main square.
The IFA president, Mr Tom Parlon, received rapturous applause when he said that the ministers had the responsibility to protect farm families all over Europe.
He said that the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, was facing the most important week in his political career because what he negotiated would shape Irish agriculture for the next 10 years.
"The outcome of these talks will determine the viability of 50,000 family farms and 20,000 jobs outside agriculture, as well as the social and economic wellbeing of rural Ireland," he said.
Within minutes of the march leaving the Jubelpark, about a mile from the Commission offices, trouble flared between the marchers and the police. Farmers led by a French contingent tested the mettle of the first police check they met. This was repeated at all the roadblocks along the route where the police in their riot gear frequently fired CS gas and used water cannon on the protesters. The cold and the lack of facilities for the marchers made for a grim day out and tempers became more heated towards the end of the day.
The air was punctured by the sound of fireworks which the French farmers threw with abandon at friend and foe alike, increasing the temperature of the day.
While none of the Irish contingent was involved in any of the incidents, sporadic violence broke out all along the route, but was concentrated at the barriers closest to the Commission building, where water cannon and tear-gas were in constant use.
The small element of the French detachment which led the violence threw cobblestones, bottles and bricks and attempted to damage road signs and shop fronts. However, the police held firm and by late afternoon most of the marchers had dispersed and a major clean-up operation got under way.
Overall, the turnout was disappointing from the farmers' point of view but the level of damage was much less than at the protest during the last round of CAP and GATT negotiations, when over 200 people were arrested and one man lost a hand when he picked up a police grenade.
Local people, especially those in the cordoned-off area of the city where the march took place, were highly critical of both the police and the marchers.
Before leaving to join farm leader colleagues in Brussels who will monitor the negotiations, Mr Parlon acknowledged that Mr Walsh and the Government had set out a clear defence of Ireland's vital interest in the negotiations. He pointed out that he had told Mr Walsh that "no deal is better than a bad deal". The IFA president accused the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, of pursuing proposals which would dismantle the Common Agricultural Policy and lead to widespread rural decay.
The world price route being pursued by Mr Fischler was unsustainable and would force family farms out of business on a scale which would cause unacceptable distress across rural Ireland, he said.