The mobilization of European farmers demanding an improvement in their income continued on Saturday February 3, but unevenly. Demonstrations were held in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, where peasants announced their imminent arrival in Rome.
In Romania and France, on the other hand, the movement ran out of steam and farmers stopped their protest movement.
In Italy, farmers want to go to Rome
In Italy, farmers with some 150 tractors demonstrated in Orte, an hour from Rome, and announced their imminent arrival in the Italian capital, noted a videographer from Agence France-Presse (AFP). Marching in convoy near a major highway, the angry farmers demanded improvements in their working conditions and their income.
“We will go to Rome, all together, all of Italy” farmers, said one of the demonstrators, Felice Antonio Monfeli, without specifying the date. “With this demonstration, we expect the government to give us answers, personally”declared another demonstrator, Domenico Chiergi.
Italian farmers have been demanding an audience with the government of ultraconservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for days, without having received a response so far.
In Germany, access to Frankfurt airport disrupted
In Germany, several hundred farmers on tractors, opposed to a plan to reduce subsidies for diesel, disrupted access to Frankfurt airport, the most important airport, on Saturday until the beginning of the afternoon. of the country, city police said. Around midday, the police estimated that 400 tractors were taking part in the demonstration, while the Hessian state farmers’ association counted up to a thousand.
First event in Switzerland
Switzerland experienced its first demonstration of farmers on Saturday, with a procession of around thirty tractors parading through the streets of Geneva to express the “revolt” and the demands of Swiss farmers.
“This is the first peasant gathering in Switzerland following the demonstrations and blockades taking place throughout Europe. In Switzerland, many people say that the situation is different and that we are not subject to the policies” of the EU, “but in reality we are still in the same kind of framework”said Eline Müller, union secretary of Uniterre, which organized the rally.
“Frustration and growing unease” in Spain
In Spain, the three main agricultural unions announced on Friday that they were continuing their mobilization following a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture. A series of demonstrations are planned in the coming weeks in the country, including February 13 in Barcelona.
Farmers’ unions denounce “increasing frustration and unease” of the agricultural sector in Spain, the leading European country exporting fruit and vegetables.
An agreement with the government reached in Romania
In Romania, farmers and road hauliers, who were among the first in Europe to shout their ” Fed up “ by blocking roads, began to break camp on Saturday, following the announcement of an agreement with their government. The demonstrators are “satisfied” to have obtained a place at the negotiating table, one of their representatives, Danut Andrus, told AFP.
Most roadblocks lifted in France
French farmers, who had given the starting signal for this vast protest movement, had lifted most of their roadblocks on Friday, the day after announcements made by the French government concerning global aid of 400 million euros and the putting ” on break “ of a pesticide reduction plan.
But smaller actions continue. On Saturday, for example, a supermarket was blocked in Var (south), while farmers dumped manure in front of two hypermarkets in Indre-et-Loire (center), where they ” control “ products to verify origin and labeling.
In an attempt to extinguish the anger which was gaining ground on the continent, the European Commission on Thursday promised measures to defend “legitimate interests” farmers in the European Union, in particular by reducing the “administrative burden” of the much-maligned common agricultural policy (CAP). European policy too complex, incomes too low, inflation, foreign competition, accumulation of standards, soaring fuel prices: the demands of European farmers are essentially identical in all countries.