MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. Almost 50% of the Polish population supports calls from the country’s farmers to close the border to Ukrainian agricultural products, according to the results of a survey conducted by the SW Research pollster commissioned by the Rzeczpospolita newspaper.
Some 46.5% of those interviewed favored suspending imports from Ukraine, 29.4% of respondents were against such restrictions, while 24.1% of the polled citizens of Poland had no opinion on the issue, according to the survey.
The survey was carried out on February 20-21 in the form of an online questionnaire. Some 800 Polish adults were polled.
On February 15, Polish farmers requested at a meeting with Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Sekerski to temporarily close the border with Ukraine amid an uncontrolled supply of agricultural products from the country. The minister suggested finding alternative solutions to the problem, favoring partial restrictions on the supply of Ukrainian produce given the market situation.
On February 9, Polish farmers started large-scale protests and blocked checkpoints at the border with Ukraine. They called for limiting or fully banning the supply of cheap agricultural products from Ukraine and beefing up support for national animal production. They are also unhappy with the European Union’s ‘Green Deal’ strategy, which suggests reaching zero hydrocarbon emissions by 2050. The leadership of the Polish agriculture ministry backs the farmers’ protest.