The protests of farmers continue with their tractors invading the streets in various European countries and in Italy. Meanwhile, Europe is moving.
The revolting French farmers broke into a storage area of the general markets of Rungis, on the outskirts of Paris
, where "damage" was committed, according to French police sources, specifying that the demonstrators were evacuated by the forces of the order and that 79 people would be stopped by the police.
The Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, had warned the protesters that any attempt to access the general markets of Rungis, the most important wholesale market in France, would be prevented by the police.
The tractor protest has returned to the area of the central Brescia motorway toll booth
where in the early afternoon some vehicles had obstructed traffic, then slowing down traffic which went haywire especially in the surrounding areas of the southern area of Brescia.
Now the traffic is flowing again.
The protest continued under the Coldiretti headquarters from which no one wanted to speak to the protesters.
The European Commission has announced a new extension of the derogation from the common agricultural policy (CAP) rule which provides that to access community aid farmers must leave certain amounts of fallow land.
This was announced by the vice-president of the community executive
Margaritis Schinas
at a press conference.
The one linked to fallow land is one of the measures to make the agri-food sector sustainable against which, however, farmers are protesting by lining up tractors on the streets of various European cities.
The community executive proposes in particular to allow EU farmers to take advantage of derogations for 2024 from the rules of the common agricultural policy which oblige them to maintain certain non-productive areas.
To receive CAP support, farmers must meet a strengthened set of nine environmentally and climate-friendly standards.
This principle of cross-compliance applies to almost 90% of the used agricultural area in the EU and plays an important role in the integration of sustainable agricultural practices.
The 'good agricultural and environmental conditions' standard requires dedicating a minimum amount of arable land to non-productive areas or features, typically uncultivated land but also to features such as hedges or trees.
Farms with less than ten hectares of arable land are generally exempt from this obligation.
Today the Commission offers the possibility to all EU farmers to be exempt
from this requirement and to continue to be entitled to the basic direct payment of the CAP: instead of keeping the land fallow or unproductive on 4% of their arable land, farmers EU countries that grow nitrogen-fixing crops (such as lentils, peas or broad beans) and/or catch crops on 7% of their arable land will be considered to comply with the requirements.
Agriculture Minister
Francesco Lollobrigida
recently met with representatives of the tractor movement, who came to demonstrate in front of the Verona Fieragricola.
The minister spoke with the group's spokespersons, announcing that later, after the inauguration of the fair, he will meet a small delegation of them.
"There must be no farmers against farmers" the minister repeated several times, explaining that the Government is aware of the needs of the sector.
There are around 300 demonstrators in front of the fair, while the presence of tractors is reduced to less than a dozen vehicles.
"Well,
the meeting went very well,"
Lollobrigida said briefly as she entered the Fieragricola district of Verona after speaking at length with representatives of the tractor movement.
For safety and traffic reasons, the authorities had not allowed the demonstrators to arrive in procession with all their tractors, limiting the demonstration in front of the fair to just five agricultural vehicles.
Tractor leader, "those who have seen Lollobrigida do not represent us"
.
"Whoever spoke with Minister Lollobrigida does not represent us."
Danilo Calvani
, who leads the
Committee of Betrayed Farmers
(Cra), from which the tractor protest started on 22 January,
told ANSA .
In a statement published on Facebook, Calvani speaks of "a handful of opportunists who, posing as representatives of the farmers and the agricultural mobilization, 'deal' with members of the Government for their own personal gain. The same false representatives, members of the parties that for years they are decimating the agri-food sector", reads the note.
"The CRA and all the committees, associations and social classes adhering to the mobilization distance themselves from these mercenaries in the pay of a failed and unreliable political class - we read in the note - and which once again maneuvers its subordinates by passing them off as representatives of the world of agriculture and mobilization".
"The tractors that are on the streets across Europe have problems with the current European Commission. The von der Leyen Commission from this point of view is disastrous, on the labor and rights front."
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini
said this
during a press point in the European Parliament.
For further information Agenzia ANSA The tractor protest spreads, the EU proposal to farmers on Thursday - News - Ansa.it Macron calls Brussels, new measures for farmers are on the way (ANSA)
The farmers' protest "must be taken with the utmost attention, as a metropolitan mayor I say that the province of Florence has an important agricultural vocation and I have decided to convene the farmers' association".
This was stated by the mayor of Florence
Dario Nardella
, guest of Rai News24, underlining that "in the latest budget there is nothing in favor of agriculture".
"The cost of diesel is also an Italian issue - he added -. The excise duties that should have been cut have not been cut, this also affects the world of agriculture. I hope that the usual parties do not try to exploit it to gather some votes, I hope there are concrete proposals."
France, new Attal announcements soon
The French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, should express himself again ''quickly'', ''undoubtedly before the weekend'', to ''make new announcements'' to the farmers in revolt: this is what was announced by the French Minister of Agriculture , Marc Fesneau, on Sud Radio.
The minister expected in Brussels today also said that he has ''excellent hopes that the European Commission will announce exemptions'' on the obligation for land to be set aside (set aside or fallow).
Meanwhile, the Confédération paysanne union announced that it had been received this morning, at 10 am, by the prime minister in Paris.
New tractor block near Paris' Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport, France's main airport.
According to what the newspaper La Voix du Nord writes, a group of farmers from the north of the country have gathered since this morning at a checkpoint on the A1 motorway, between Paris and Lille, blocked in turn by the armored vehicles of the gendarmes just two kilometers from the large transalpine airport that connects Paris to the rest of the world.
The revolting farmers asked the gendarmes to symbolically advance them ten metres, but the police refused, maintaining their position.
Eighteen people were stopped this morning for ''obstructing traffic''
near the general markets of Rungis, on the outskirts of Paris, among the possible targets of the farmers' protest: this is what was reported by French police sources cited by AFP.
According to what was declared this morning by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, today there are "over 100 checkpoints" of tractors and "10,000 demonstrators" in France.
"They do not attack the police, they do not enter Rungis, but if they ever do so, obviously, I repeat here, we will not let it happen", the minister had warned.
The president of the French agricultural union Fnsea, Arnaud Rousseau
, during a hearing at the Senate in Paris,
assured that he would ''appeal for calm and reason'' in the face of the continuation of the farmers' protest,
adding that in his opinion many 'European issues'' cannot be resolved ''in three days''.
While demonstrations and tractor blockades continue throughout France, Rousseau said that today there is "enormous anticipation" in the face of the "accumulation of norms and rules". But "there are also many European issues that they cannot be resolved in three days - he warned - So I try to appeal to calm and reason.'' Rousseau spoke this morning before the Senate Economic Commission.
50 vehicles in front of the port of Oristano
About fifty tractors in front of the industrial port of Oristano.
The protest of Sardinian farmers and shepherds is spreading after the start in Cagliari with the garrison of the port since yesterday morning.
At the moment the participants in the mobilization are not blocking the goods and trucks entering and exiting the Oristano airport.
Many tractors, at least a dozen, left from the nearby town of Riola Sardo.
The vehicles are lined up in front of the flowerbeds: only flags with the tricolor and the Quattro Moors are flying from the tractors.
The protesters will decide in the next few hours how long they will stay in front of the port.
Shepherds and farmers spent their first night in front of the port of Cagliari who have been protesting against the European Union's policies on production in the Sardinian countryside since yesterday morning.
No tents, but the demonstrators spent the night under gazebos and in tractor cabs heated by a bonfire.
"We are ready for another day of battle - Giorgio Congia, one of the spokespersons of the protest, tells ANSA - we will continue with the blockades in fits and starts. And we will meet the leaders of Argea and Laore".
In the meantime, the mobilization is spreading: the tractors have reached the industrial port of Oristano, while on Friday at 10am another protest front will open in Muros, in the province of Sassari.
"We are tired - Congia reiterates - of being told by the EU how we should work. We have concrete claims on Irpef and tax credit: something was granted to us, but then it was not confirmed. And in the meantime the countryside is in crisis".
The flames from last night's fire are now out, but shepherds and farmers have already prepared another pile of wood because they intend to stay in Cagliari at least until Thursday.
In the meantime, supplies have also arrived: drinks and food are stored under a gazebo.
About twenty tractors remained on the dirt road leading to the port entrance: it will be another day of struggle.
Over 50 vehicles in the Brindisi area
A permanent garrison with over fifty tractors has been protesting since this morning in Largo Machiavelli in Carovigno, in the province of Brindisi, joining the ongoing mobilization of farmers in many Italian areas.
"They are taking away our dignity. But this time we won't stop" points out the delegation.
Placards and slogans against community policies that support entrepreneurs "will lead to the closure of many companies. And many jobs will be at risk".
CAP reform, production costs, disasters and plant diseases, unfair competition and bureaucracy: these are the themes relaunched during the event in which the mayor of the same municipality, Massimo Lanzilotti, also participated.
"A spontaneous committee - explains the mayor - which decides in a peaceful manner to preside over this square to demonstrate all its intolerance towards European policies and the national government, must be strongly supported by politicians, especially local ones. We find ourselves in the face of requests that come from below but which are unfortunately little listened to".
The government, according to the mayor, "in the Milleproroghe decree must abolish the agricultural Irpef and think to find the coverage to reduce the tax on agricultural diesel".
A territory, that of Alto Salento, which has been grappling with the xylella emergency for years, and therefore a sharp drop in production due to a bacterium which has already caused the killing of thousands of plants in this area of Puglia.
"I have already asked the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies for a hearing on this issue, which must be addressed as a national emergency - concludes Lanzilotti - and not as an isolated territory. Because the immediate future of numerous companies".
3 days of mobilization announced in Vda
"Dear Europe, hands off our land. Our land is our life".
This is what we read in a flyer distributed in Aosta during the Sant'Orso Fair - the most important craft event in the Alps - which announces a mobilization of farmers, breeders and citizens from 7 to 9 February in Valle d'Aosta. 'Aosta.
Posters were also put up in various parts of the city.
"We defend Italian excellence from the interests of multinationals and from a policy incapable of reacting. What do you prefer to eat? Cricket flour or wheat flour? Let's defend ourselves from the depredation of our land and our production sectors because the European Union directives provide for the expropriation of agricultural land for the installation of solar panels in favor of multinationals, threatening Italian food sustainability and autonomy.
This practice will compromise the richness of the soil and agricultural diversity. The last fruit on the market must be Italian.
Let's protect our made in Italy" we read in the flyer which ends with an appeal: "Popular sovereignty, Monetary sovereignty, Out of the European Union".
Technical table convened in Ragusa
A technical table to address the emergency issues of the agricultural sector, in support of the farmers' protest, has been convened for tomorrow at 10.30 in the conference room of the Economic Development office, in the industrial area of Ragusa.
The mayor of Ragusa, Peppe Cassì accepted the farmers' request and invited the mayors of the Iblei municipalities, regional and national parliamentarians and trade associations.
Meanwhile, on the third day of protest, the farmers, with tractors and trucks, continue to guard the Foro Boario.
They asked and obtained permission to move the garrison to Viale delle Americas, the main access road to the city.
It has not yet been decided when the garrison will be moved.
In Calabria procession on the Ionian-Tirreno SS
Garrison and procession of tractors also today in the Rosarno plain, in the province of Reggo Calabria.
Farmers and breeders are continuing to protest against the EU's agricultural policy and the failure to defend the sector, proceeding slowly to drive their vehicles along the stretch of the Ionian-Tirreno state road 682 between Rosarno and Cinquefrondi.
Inconvenience for the many motorists who travel along the artery.
The mayor of Cinquefrondi Michele Conia brought his solidarity and that of the municipal administration to the demonstrators.
There are men and vehicles of the traffic police, carabinieri and financial police present in the area.
The protest of agricultural entrepreneurs from Spezzano Albanese remains active in the Cosentino area where for days the demonstrators have been underlining the phase of serious difficulty that the primary sector is going through.
In particular, the increase in raw material prices which has reached levels that are no longer bearable and the competition from products coming from abroad are highlighted.
Tomorrow, the farmers announce, a procession of tractors and agricultural vehicles is planned which will move from the Spezzano garrison to Castrovillari.
In Botricello, on the border between the provinces of Catanzaro and Crotone, after a week of surveillance and traffic restrictions on state road 106, it was decided to demobilize for the moment.
The decision was taken after the reassurances obtained at the technical table with the Agriculture Councilor of the Calabria Region Gianluca Gallo who announced a series of measures aimed at meeting some specific requests of the demonstrators.
Hundreds in the center of Cuneo
Hundreds of demonstrators from the "Independent Agriculture" movement flocked from different parts of the province of Cuneo, united under the slogan "No farmers, no food, no future".
The protest of farmers and breeders, inaugurated last week in Granda, had set the meeting in the square of the Palasport of San Rocco Castagnaretta.
From there a procession of tractors left, parading through the city center up to Piazza Galimberti.
After long negotiations and despite the protests of the demonstrators, the Police Headquarters authorized only 50 vehicles to reach the city center.
A delegation of representatives of the movement will present the demands in a meeting with the president of the Province Luca Robaldo.
Farmers and breeders are calling for action to combat "the burdensome interest rates on investments and the increase in the cost of raw materials", the activation of a working group to undertake a dialogue with the institutions in view of "a of serious work" and the fight against "unfair competition inflicted by countries in which the same operational and production restrictions do not apply to which we adapt today in Italy".
The alert reaches the Ventimiglia border
The alert for the farmers' protest also affects the French-Italian border of Menton, after the news spread on social media that the demonstration, currently on the A9 near Puget, would reach the south of France and in particular the
border of Ventimiglia at the Ponte San Luigi pass.
According to what was communicated by the Prefecture of the Var Department, the farmers would be near Frejus, in the direction of Nice.
"The A8 motorway is blocked at the Capitou toll booth", we read in the alert launched by the VAR prefecture released on social media, where the exit at Puget Sur Argens is indicated as mandatory.
The Italian border police and the gendarmerie and the police nationale have ordered a strengthening of controls at the gates.
Cortege blocks the Alessandria ring road
There are just under 300 participants in the tractor parade in Alessandria organized by the coordination of the Alessandria-Asti Autonomous Farmers which, this morning, after having crossed the provincial capital, entered the ring road and blocked it.
After the walking demonstration of on Monday to the Prefecture and Province headquarters, the demonstrators moved from the garrison on the outskirts of the city, in Viale Milite Ignoto (in the Orti district), set up last Friday, to head towards the Alessandria ring road.
On the vehicles - in parade with horns blaring - tricolor flags, posters in support of Made in Italy, writings against "exorbitant costs and low earnings".
Protest continues in Sannio, farmers spend the night in the garrison
"We're not moving from here."
This is the response of the Samnite farmers who, in the aftermath of the tractor protest in the city of Benevento, decided to continue demonstrating after spending the night at the Rotonda dei Pentri, on the outskirts of the city, where they set up a garrison.
"Until we have certain and credible answers from the institutions - says
Gabriele Forte
, one of the spokespersons for "
Riscattoagricoltura
" who organized the initiative - we will continue to demonstrate. People understand our protest enough to welcome us as heroes" .
"We're not moving from here."
This is the response of the Samnite farmers who, in the aftermath of the tractor protest in the city of Benevento, decided to continue demonstrating after spending the night at the Rotonda dei Pentri, on the outskirts of the city, where they set up a garrison.
"Until we have certain and credible answers from the institutions - says Gabriele Forte, one of the spokespersons for "Riscatto agricultural" who organized the initiative - we will continue to demonstrate. People understand our protest enough to welcome us as heroes" .
Three days of protest in L'Aquila
The tractor mobilization arrives in L'Aquila with three days of demonstrations and marches by farmers gathered under the acronym of the 'Spontaneous Farmers Movement Cospa Abruzzo'.
From today until Friday there will be a static sit-in in two distinct and opposite areas of the city.
In the western area the meeting point is the car park of the Agorà commercial area (Statale, 80).
On the other side of the city, the camper area of L'Aquila Est (via Domenico D'Ascanio) was chosen.
Precisely from via D'Ascanio, a procession will start from 9.30 tomorrow which will also affect Sr 17 bis, via Panella, the roundabout at the corner of viale De Gasperi, viale Gran Sasso and piazza Battaglione Alpini (luminous fountain).
Bans and removals have been issued from today to Friday (4.30 pm) in the areas affected by the demonstrations and the procession.
A21 blocked, processions also in Cuneo and Novara
The farmers' protest in Alessandria, with around 300 demonstrators, also blocked the Alessandria west toll booth of the A21 Turin-Piacenza motorway for over half an hour.
Previously the march had paralyzed the Alessandria ring road.
The vehicles in double rows blocked the entire roadway for the time the procession passed.
The farmers' protest touched other Piedmontese cities: in Cuneo a procession moved in the morning from the hamlet of San Rocco Castagnaretta towards the city centre.
In Novara the demonstrators, aboard around 150 tractors, divided into two groups, gathered in the square of the 'Silvio Piola' Piola stadium.
In addition to the Novara area, farmers came from the Vercelli area and Lombardy, as well as from nearby Lomellina.
Protesters honked their horns while displaying signs with slogans such as "Without agriculture, no food, no future" and "If agriculture dies, you die too."
In the afternoon, a direct procession is planned for the parking lot of the Vicolungo outlet, about fifteen kilometers from Novara.
200 traveling from the A16 toll booth along the state road
About 200 tractors have moved from the A16 motorway toll booth at Candela nel Foggiano and are traveling along state road 655 in the direction of Foggia, occupying only part of the northern carriageway.
At the moment, no major inconveniences have been reported for motorists traveling along the overtaking lane.
"We will travel about seven kilometers along the state road until the Ascoli Satriano exit and then we will return to the garrison - some farmers confirm. We will travel about fifteen kilometers in total".
The farmers who are participating in the march come from Candela and many municipalities in the Dauni Mountains.
Fixed farmers' presence at the entrance to the A1 in Melegnano
It continued into the night and is still continuing in Melegnano, in the Milan area, near the entrance to the A1, as protests continued in various parts of Lombardy such as in Brescia where, after having paraded through the city yesterday, the tractors stopped in the car park of rugby pitch announcing that they will stay at least two days.
The farmers who join the "
Riscatto Agricolo
" coordination ask that we arrive at "a new agricultural plan" reiterated Filippo Goglio, one of the organizers of the Melegnano garrison, and at a European level.
"We no longer need exemptions or extensions of wrong laws - he observed - but we need a new agricultural plan. Only the union of differences within differences will be able to rebuild European agricultural dignity".
"We understand the choice of those who demonstrate" commented the president of
Confagricoltura Milano, Lodi, Monza and Brianza Francesco Pacchiarini
but "the problems are resolved at institutional tables".
"The exasperation of farmers, transformed into protest in many areas of the country, and now also in our territory, has its roots in the objectives of the European Green Deal, which can be shared in theory, but which need to be completely reformulated in practice, to find a point of balance between environmental and economic sustainability. We understand the reasons for the protest and the decision of those who joined - he added -.
The sector is united by the urgency of directing the sensitivity of politics and society towards the conditions of economic precariousness in which it finds itself , however, the choice of our organization was, as always, that of institutional confrontation, even hard and close, with the Government and Europe.
We are convinced, in fact, that problems can be resolved first and foremost by participating and bringing requests to the discussion tables negotiation".
Sit-in in front of the Chamber of Commerce in Foggia
The farmers of Lucera and the municipalities of the Daunian sub-Apennines in the Foggia area are protesting in front of the Foggia chamber of commerce, where this morning (like every Wednesday) the wheat commodity exchange will take place, having learned unofficially "that the price of wheat will suffer a decline."
The protest is part of the national mobilization initiatives of farmers against EU policies.
Also in the Foggia area, around 200 tractors are driving along state road 655 towards the capital, occupying part of the northern carriageway.
"We - explains farmer Raffaele Miano - ask for the traceability of the wheat and the inclusion of the product in the SIAN platform (national agricultural information system) so that foreign wheat bears the word 'estero'. This is also done for other products and the important thing is to do it to have a guarantee of food safety. We will continue with our measures and we have no intention of giving up until the European community and the Italian institutions give us certain and safe answers".
Today in the Potentino area a CIA meeting
After the demonstrations of recent days, in the Ionian area, in the province of Matera, and in the industrial area of San Nicola di Melfi (Potenza), today in Basilicata the attention is focused on the assembly of the zonal directors of Vulture (Melfi, Venosa , Lavello, Montemilone) of the CIA.
In particular - according to what was announced by the trade organization - with this evening's meeting "the mobilization of the CIA-Farmers called in Basilicata by the leading bodies begins. The processions of tractors that travel along the regional, Italian and European roads are the symptom of real distress".
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