The man gets off his tractor and begins a singular arithmetic lesson. “Three liters of milk is worth one liter of water”says Vasile Barnea, one of the few hundred farmers who have blocked the commune of Afumati, located 15 kilometers northeast of Bucharest, since January 9. “Let’s go to the supermarket, I’ll show you what country we live in”he insists.
On the shelves, bottles of milk display an average price which represents the equivalent of 2 euros. “We buy this liter of milk from the farmer for around 0.25 euro cents, calculates Vasile Barnea while counting on his fingers. One, two three, that gives us 0.75 euros for 3 liters of milk. Let’s go get a bottle of water. And behold, with 3 liters of milk we buy a liter of water. That’s how it is in Romania and we’ve had enough of it. The government must act, ministers should do their job and protect us but they are raising taxes and laughing at us. »
Alin Furdui, a friend of Vasile, also joined this spontaneous demonstration of farmers. He came in a truck to reinforce the protesters’ support system. “Vasile is right, he explains. I worked in Spain and there a liter of milk costs half the price in Romania. Here it is more expensive than in Western Europe but average salaries are below a thousand euros. In the West, it is cheaper because Western farmers receive much higher subsidies. It’s unfair and the government is doing nothing to help us. »
At first, the authorities ignored the discontent of farmers, who accused the government of having increased taxes in early January. The new tax policy has caused an increase in energy and gasoline prices, which is reflected in the increase in the price of basic food products. Demonstrations increased and the protest movement spread across most major cities.
Budget deficit of 6%
“These farmers are not farmers but protest instigators!” declared the Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, Tuesday January 16. Their demands are aberrant. » The hostile attitude of the authorities has only reinforced the discontent of farmers and truckers, who have blocked several access routes to the borders with neighboring countries – Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia. On Thursday, the agriculture minister received a delegation of farmers and apologized for his comments.
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