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EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski came under pressure on Friday to resign as farmers blocked roads in his native Poland and border crossings with Ukraine at the start of a new month-long strike against EU policies.
“The commissioner … should terminate his mission,” said Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, which nominated Wojciechowski to be Poland’s EU commissioner in 2019.
“This is solely his decision, but due to his very unfortunate statements, he should end his mission,” he said, referring to past statements by Wojciechowski defending EU environmental policies which have since become a central target of protests by farmers.
Farmers in Poland blockaded roads and major border crossings with Ukraine on Friday at the start of a month-long series of countrywide protests. The farmers demand a stop to imports of agricultural products from Ukraine and a halt to implementing EU green policies — echoing demands made at protests around Europe. They’ve also asked for more money for livestock farming.
Several other Polish politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz of the Polish People’s Party, also criticized Wojciechowski and called for his resignation.
“There is a man in Europe who united all European and Polish farmers against the reform he proposed. This is Janusz Wojciechowski. Resign!” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
Kaczyński spoke to Wojciechowski on Friday afternoon and asked him to resign, people in the European Commission told POLITICO, adding that Wojciechowski was “seriously considering” doing so.
However Wojciechowski later gave an interview on Polish TV at which he dismissed the calls to resign. “European commissioners do not take instructions from the capitals of member countries,” he said. Responding to Kaczyński, he said that, while he respected the views of the PiS leader, he would not “act under pressure.”
With only months left in his mandate, Wojciechowski has long been seen as a lame-duck commissioner after hitting the campaign trail in support of the failed bid by PiS to win a third term in a general election last fall. His repeated absences from Brussels led to criticism at the time that he was “quiet quitting.”
Wojciechowski on Thursday published an open letter on the X platform highlighting the actions he had taken to help farmers in Poland, including lobbying to curb imports of Ukrainian products and increasing funding for livestock farmers within the last reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
This story has been updated.
