If the anger of farmers has subsided somewhat, it continues to be present and is visible in other European countries.
Like in Spain or Italy, again this Thursday.
Thus, around fifteen tractors remained parked for around two hours in front of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, in the heart of Madrid, before a meeting with Minister Luis Planas which began shortly before 6 p.m. to protest against the crisis in the sector.
The machines stopped, shovel in the air, at the end of the morning on the threshold of the ministry.
Farmers displayed banners proclaiming
“farmers on a war footing”
or
“Planas, the ruin of the countryside, you proposed it, you won it”
.
Read alsoSpanish farmers continue road blockages
The day before, Spanish farmers had already demonstrated as they have been doing for more than a week to denounce the difficulties of the sector, blocking roads almost everywhere in the country, from Seville (south) to Valladolid (north-west). , as well as in Catalonia (north-east).
Like their European colleagues, Spanish farmers are protesting against competition that they consider unfair from countries outside the EU, which are therefore not subject to the same rules, and against bureaucracy and standards that they consider it too heavy.
It should be remembered that Spain, often referred to as the
"vegetable garden of Europe"
, is the leading European exporter of fruits and vegetables.
Many farms are nevertheless in difficulty due, in particular, to the drought which has been raging in the country for three years.
Opposition to the price of agricultural fuel
Further east, in Rome, more than a thousand farmers also demonstrated, including driving tractors onto a large ancient stadium in the city, the Circus Maximus.
At the same time, a small group gathered at Palazzo Chigi, seat of Giorgia Meloni's government, while a delegation went Thursday morning to the headquarters of the European Commission in Rome to deliver a letter of demands.
These farmers are especially opposed to the price of agricultural fuel and the European Union's Green Deal, which is supposed to mitigate the consequences of global warming but which, according to them, harms their profession.
On Friday, Giorgia Meloni held a roundtable with Italian farmers' associations, during which she promised the restoration of tax exemptions that her nationalist right-wing government had suspended.