[ad_1]
Among other grievances, farmers have expressed anger over overly restrictive agricultural regulations and unfair competition.
The movement erupted in France last month, and protests have also taken place in Germany, Belgium, Poland, Romania, Greece and the Netherlands.
Farmers blocked highways and disrupted traffic in major cities with convoys of tractors.
In Italy, about 150 tractors gathered on Saturday in Orte, about an hour north of Rome.
Related article: ‘Betrayed by Europe’: Italian farmers intensify protests
Demonstrators demanding better pay and conditions announced they would soon arrive in the Italian capital, an AFP reporter saw.
An Italian farmer stands on a tractor in central Milan on February 1, 2024. During a protest. His placard (L) reads: “No agriculture, no food, no future.” (Photo by Gabriel Boyes/AFP)
“Italian agriculture has woken up,” said demonstrator Felice Antonio Monferri.
“It’s historic and the people here are proof of that. For the first time in their history, peasants are united under the same Italian flag.”
Demonstrators have been calling for dialogue with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government for several days, but so far there has been no response.
“The situation is critical. We cannot be slaves to our own companies,” said Domenico Chiergi, another protester.
advertisement
Germany, Switzerland, Spain, France
In Germany, police said hundreds of farmers on tractors blocked access to Frankfurt Airport, the country’s busiest, in protest against diesel tax reform.
The Hessian Farmers’ Association estimates the number of vehicles at around 1,000, but police said 400 tractors had taken part by the time the protest ended in the early afternoon.
Related article: German farmers block access to major shipping ports in new protests
Protests at the Dutch-Belgian border, which closed a major highway, subsided on Saturday night, Berga news agency reported.
Decorated with German flags and placards that read “Bureaucracy and laws without a reason – first the farmers die, then the land” during a protest by farmers and truck drivers in Berlin, January 15, 2024 A tractor can be seen. (Photo by John McDougall/AFP)
Farmers’ discontent has also affected non-EU Switzerland, where about 30 tractors paraded in Geneva on Saturday, the country’s first protest since the movement began in other parts of Europe. Activities were held.
“It’s very scary for us young people not to know whether we have a future in our profession,” Antonin Lam, a 19-year-old apprentice winemaker, told AFP.
advertisement
He welcomed the move to greener agriculture, but called for more support in the face of competition from countries that do not have the same standards.
In Spain, the three main farmers’ unions have announced further protests in the coming weeks, with a large demonstration planned in Barcelona on February 13th.
A Spanish farmer drives a tractor down the road during a protest calling for fair conditions in the agricultural sector in León, northern Spain, on February 1, 2024. His sign reads, “Farmers, wake up – fair prices now.” (Photo courtesy of CESAR MANSO/AFP)
In France, security forces lifted the few remaining highway blockades, a day after major farmers’ unions demanded concessions from the government to have them lifted.
Related article: French farmers clear roadblocks as European protests continue
Their mobilization forced the government of new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to suspend plans to reduce the use of pesticides and insecticides and provide a €400 million aid package.
Romanian farmers and transporters also announced on Saturday an end to roadblock protests following an agreement with the government.
Greek farmers consider escalation
In Greece, about 2,000 farmers protested in Thessaloniki, the country’s second city, on Saturday, demanding more aid.
advertisement
Their actions came a day after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced further support measures.
Some farmers in the mountain villages of Thessaly threw away chestnuts and apples that had become damaged due to the natural disasters that hit the region.
“We have no food. We cannot take life lightly,” Kostas Tselas, head of the Karditsa Rural Association, told AFP.
“We don’t want to become immigrants, we want to remain on our land.”
Farmers drive tractors near Strasbourg in eastern France on January 30, 2024, in a protest called by the local branch of the main farmers’ union FNSEA and the Jeune Agricultural Society, amid nationwide protests. A tractor was used to block the A35 motorway near Strasbourg in the east. (Photo by Frédéric Florin/AFP)
Mr. Mitsotakis has already extended special consumption tax refunds on oil and local electricity discounts from May to September.
This is one of a series of measures that Mitsotakis has earmarked for more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).
But Tselas dismissed these measures as “peanuts”.
Risos Mardas, president of the Farmers’ Union, told reporters that a meeting was scheduled for next week “to decide on the extension of the lockdown.”
The EU is scrambling to address concerns ahead of this year’s European Parliament elections.
The European Commission on Thursday promised measures to protect the “legitimate interests” of EU farmers, particularly the administrative burdens of the EU’s much-criticized Common Agricultural Policy.
[ad_2]
Source link
