Tgcom24
Von der Leyen: “Improve things, you deserve fair compensation”
Faced with this uprising that affects many European countries, the response comes from the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who declares at the first meeting of the strategic dialogue with European farmers at the Palazzo Berlaymont: “We must overcome this polarization” with dialogue And you deserve fair compensation for your work. Our goal is to secure your livelihood and ensure Europe's food security. Each of us has our role to play. We urgently need improvement, there is a long-term perspective in the industry.
In France, the right is stoking the fire
After the tragic accident at a roadblock in southern France that killed a woman and her teenage daughter, tensions in the country are running extremely high and the far right continues to fan the flames as the Rassemblement National and the Reconquete are in sight Europeans support the farmers' demands. Some top politicians, including Reconquete leader Marion Marechal and Committee of European Agricultural Organizations President Christiane Lambert, were in Brussels on Wednesday for a farmers' rally to denounce the green transition that would penalize farmers.
Tension is rising in Italy
Even in Italy, tensions are increasing rapidly and farmers have been taking to the streets with their tractors for days from Vercelli to Frosinone, from Turin to Viterbo, from Pescara to Bari. All together to combat insect meal and bureaucracy, cultivated meat and expensive diesel. La “Stampa” writes about Franco Clerico, owner of a company in the Cuneo area, who says he started a protest “in which I didn’t know if anyone would take part” and gathered with a hundred and almost 200 tractors People found space again. “Now they call me colleagues every day: they want to protest, they want to change things.”
“Stay away from politics”
Then again in our country there is the Cra, the committees united by betrayed farmers, led by Danilo Calvani, a small agrarian entrepreneur from Pontinia (Latina), who at the time of the pitchforks led the farmers, truck drivers, street vendors, fishermen, taxi drivers in the war against the Monti government, supported by right-wing extremist groups such as Forza Nuova. Calvani wants to go back to the streets, but assures us: “We will keep away those who want to sell us to politicians.” The government in the crosshairs is “that bows down to Europe and the multinational corporations,” says Calvani, but also the agricultural unions “corrupt, sold-out, vulgar criminals.” The aim is to defend Italian agriculture against European rules that instead facilitate foreign products.
Cost-effective products and ecological measures
A leitmotif that connects our farmers with those in France and Germany, but also with Poland and Hungary, who are protesting against cheap “Ukrainian chicken”. And then there are the ecological measures: from the plan to reduce nitrogen emissions from livestock farming in the Netherlands, with the protest of the category led by the far-right leader Geert Wilders, to the taxes on the most polluting fuels in Germany and France. Where Emmanuel Macron lends a hand to the category. To prevent a new social emergency, he sent farmers his message posted on X: “I have asked the government to mobilize to find concrete solutions to the difficulties you face.”