“Fight against the war of the European Union [UE] against agriculture » : it is under this title that the Hungarian institute Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), generously financed by the government of nationalist Viktor Orban and chaired by his political advisor, Balazs Orban (a homonym with no family ties), is organizing a conference, Wednesday January 24 afternoon, in Brussels, in which Véronique Le Floc’h, the president of Rural Coordination, is due to participate.
The same day, the French agricultural union called on its troops to demonstrate in the Belgian capital, Place du Luxembourg, in front of the European Parliament, to denounce “the excesses of the common agricultural policy [PAC] ». Other delegations from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Hungary are expected, while between motorway blockages and tractor parades, the protest movements are taking place. multiply on the old Continent.
Less than six months before the European elections, scheduled for June 6 to 9, the anger of farmers is taking over in a campaign which has barely begun and which, for the moment, is seeing far-right and nationalist parties rise in the ranks. surveys. In this context, Europeans know, there is an urgent need to contain the movement and defuse tensions.
On Tuesday January 23, European agriculture ministers, meeting in Brussels, devoted a long debate to the subject, before, on Thursday, the Commission launched a “strategic dialogue”, which aims to calm the debates that the ecological transition gives rise to on farms and other European operations.
“The voice of farmers must be heard”
“The far right is trying to use farmers as political leverage. We must defend them without political manipulation”, annoyed Spanish Minister Luis Planas. Before continuing: “this dialogue should have started when the new CAP or the Green Deal proposals were presented. But it’s never too late if done correctly. The voice of farmers must be heard. »
In fact, for more than a year, the rural world has been sending signals of discontent, citing inflation which is suffocating it, Ukrainian products which freely enter the domestic market and cause unfair competition or even the multiplication of ecological standards which are ruining his life. In Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, the far right won elections by, in particular, carrying out its recriminations.
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