Angry Romanian farmers gathered on a road in Afumati, about fifteen km from Bucharest, January 16, 2024 (AFP/Daniel MIHAILESCU)
For almost two weeks now, Gheorghe Fifea has been camping on his tractor on the outskirts of Bucharest. Despite the fatigue, this Romanian farmer will not leave the place until he has won his case.
Across Europe, anger in the sector is brewing against a backdrop of various demands in the face of soaring fuel prices, competition from Ukrainian goods and European constraints.
Romania, a country of 19 million inhabitants neighboring Ukraine, is on the front line.
“We can’t take it anymore, we’re at the end of our rope,” the 58-year-old protester, who traveled nearly 500 km with four colleagues to protest on the outskirts of the capital, told AFP on Monday.
Wheat, sunflower, corn, soya: his 700 hectare farm, located in the north, not far from the Ukrainian border, is directly affected by the influx of cereals exported by Kiev, thanks to the lifting of customs duties. the EU in May 2022.
“We are fed up! They arrive and sell them at knockdown prices,” protests Gheorghe Fifea.
Losses linked to this competition were estimated at nearly three billion euros last year, according to figures put forward by one of the agricultural unions.
Romanian farmers and truckers gathered during an action in Timisoara, western Romania, January 19, 2024 (AFP/ATTILA KISBENEDEK)
During this time, he tells him that he is dying slowly, between the credits to be repaid, the episodes of drought and the high taxes, he lists, a fur hat screwed on his head to protect himself from the freezing cold.
– ‘We stay here’ –
“Agriculture in a state of clinical death”: in the four corners of Romania, from Timisoara to the town of Afumati where around twenty vehicles are parked, farmers organize snail operations every day with loud honking of their horns.
They are supported in their struggle by truck drivers, unhappy with the exemptions provided by Brussels to transport companies in the country at war.
“On the road we only see them, they have priority,” says Costica, who did not want to give his last name. Conversely, he complains, Romanian drivers have to wait for hours at the port of Constanta, which has become a hub for the transit of grain since the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.
The 50-year-old driver, with graying hair and a fluorescent yellow jacket, sleeps in his cabin, even at minus 11 degrees like the previous night. “We are used to living rough,” he says. “We will persist until we achieve concrete results.”
Same determination from Gheorghe Fifea: “We stay here, we have nothing to do at home”.
– 76 demands –
Romanian farmers during a rally in Timisoara, western Rumnia, January 19, 2024 (AFP/ATTILA KISBENEDEK)
The atmosphere is good-natured among the demonstrators, who sometimes improvise a picnic on a trailer, sharing bread, sausages and “zacusca”, a Romanian specialty made from vegetable spread.
On the list sent to the government, there are no less than 76 requests. After several negotiation sessions, financial aid was decided. Systems for traceability of Ukrainian cereals and regulation of heavy goods vehicle traffic in Constanta are also envisaged.
But these announcements were not enough to calm the discontent.
“We have been promised a lot but we are waiting for the measures to be voted on,” comments cautiously, Ioan Clapau, aged 17, alongside his father Vasile.
Originally from Transylvania, they had to part with almost all of their livestock last year, “for lack of subsidies due to the incompetence of the political class”.
“I only have two cows and seven calves left for my own consumption. From a producer of 18 to 20,000 liters of milk per month, I have become unemployed,” laments the 56-year-old father.
© 2024 AFP
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