Wind farm hunger strikers kicked out of parliament

Protesters in the corridors of the lower house of parliament. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

“We were dragged away by force from the building,” said head of the protesters Leszek Matusik, in an interview with RMF FM.

“Some of us were carried out,” he added.

“They treated us like bandits,” another protester said.

Matusik claims that all protesters had been granted official passes to enter the building.

The demonstrators want parliament to forbid the construction of wind farms within 3 km of residential areas.

A parliamentary subcommittee is considering an amendment to the current building law on wind farms, as put forward by conservative opposition party Law and Justice.

However, the coalition government, as represented by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform and the Polish Peasants Party, has so far failed to approve the most contentious point, which concerns the distance of turbines from housing.

Ecologists argue that to minimise the effect of electromagnetic fields, wind turbines should be from 2 to 4 km away from residential areas. Thursday's demonstrators are also arguing that wind farms are harmful to animals. (nh)

Source: IAR