After France, Belgium and Germany, Italy is also affected by the anger of some of its farmers. Leaving Tuscany (north-central), several dozen Italian farmers converge on Rome on Monday February 5 at the wheel of their tractors. They hope to reach the Roman ring road and park near Via Nomentana, an artery linking the heart of the capital.
Their intention is to stay there all week until a demonstration which should bring together between 1,500 and 2,000 tractors on Friday, Andrea Papa, co-founder of the Riscatto agricolo (Agricultural Recovery) movement, told Agence France-Presse. “We came to meet the Minister of Agriculture [Francesco Lollobrigida] and ask him to open a permanent round table,” explained this 33-year-old cereal grower. At the same time as this mobilization, around two hundred tractors are also massed in Turin, near the ring road, and plan to stay there all week.
Removal of taxes
Like their European counterparts, who in recent weeks have brought to the fore the “discomfort” in the agricultural sector by blocking major roads, Italian farmers are demanding in particular better remuneration, the elimination of taxes on fuel and a revaluation of the price of milk, less ecological standards and more control of harmful species (wild boar).
From Japan, where she is on an official visit, the far-right head of government, Giorgia Meloni, explained “the anger of farmers” by “an ideological reading of the ecological transition”, which, according to her, consists of “ defend the environment by fighting the farmers.” Ms. Meloni and her executive regularly criticize Brussels for imposing, in the name of ecological transition, standards contrary to Italy’s industrial and agricultural interests.
Rome, the main beneficiary of the European recovery plan after the Covid-19 pandemic, recently renegotiated it upwards to increase the aid devoted to its agriculture from 5 to 8 billion euros, recalled the Italian Prime Minister. The latter also argued that Italy “made the effort to extend aid for diesel”. “We did our best,” she insisted at a press conference.