Movement started in France last month and spread to other European countries
Militant farmers are poised to descend on Rome with their tractors today after German workers blocked Frankfurt airport as part of the anti-Brussels protests sweeping across the EU.
Farmers have expressed anger at what they say are excessively restrictive regulations on agriculture and unfair competition, among other grievances.
The movement erupted in France last month and there have also been protests in Germany, Belgium, Poland, Romania, Greece and the Netherlands. Farmers have blocked motorways and disrupted traffic in key cities with convoys of tractors.
In Italy around 150 tractors massed in Orte, about an hour north of Rome, on Saturday. Protesters there called for better pay and conditions and announced their imminent arrival in the Italian capital, a reporter nearby saw.
‘Italian agriculture has woken up,’ said protester Felice Antonio Monfeli. ‘It’s historic and the people here are proving it. For the first time in their history, farmers are united under the same flag, that of Italy.’
In Italy, around 150 tractors massed in Orte (pictured yesterday), about an hour north of Rome this morning. Protesters there called for better pay and conditions and announced their imminent arrival in the Italian capital, a reporter nearby sawFarmers with their tractors gather near the A1 highway to protest against EU agriculture policies, on February 3, 2024 in Orte, ItalyItalian farmers protest with their tractiors at the Santa Maria Capua Vetere toll booth, in Caserta, Italy, February 3Manuele Calzoni, centre, drives his tractor to join the protest of other farmers near the highway junction, in Orte, Italy, Saturday, February 3, 2024. Farmers have been protesting in various parts of Italy and Europe against EU agriculture policies
The demonstrators have for days been calling for talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, without having had a response so far.
‘The situation is critical, we cannot be slaves in our own companies,’ said another protester, Domenico Chiergi.
READ MORE: Jeremy Clarkson sends French farmers ‘good luck’ message of support a day after protesters said they were inspired by star’s Amazon farming show
In Greece, around 2,000 farmers protested in the country’s second-largest city of Thessaloniki on Saturday calling for increases in aid.
Their action came a day after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced further support measures.
Some farmers from the mountain villages of Thessaly threw chestnuts and apples that had spoiled because of the natural disasters that hit the region.
‘We have no food, we cannot put our lives in discount,’ said Kostas Tzelas, president of the Rural Associations of Karditsa. We want to stay on our land and not become migrants.’
Mitsotakis has already extended the refund of a special consumption tax on oil and a discount on rural electricity from May to September.
It is among a package of measures whose cost Mitsotakis put at more than one billion euros (£855,500).
But Tzelas dismissed these measures as ‘peanuts’.
The president of a union of agricultural associations, Rizos Maroudas, told reporters a meeting was scheduled next week ‘to decide the escalation of blockades’.
In Germany, hundreds of farmers on tractors disrupted access to Frankfurt airport, the country’s busiest, in opposition to a reform of diesel taxation, police said.
Farmers gather with their parked tractors near the highway junction, in Orte, Italy, Saturday, February 3Farmers started a controlled fire as they parked their tractors near the highway junction in Orte, ItalyItalian farmers stage a protest at the entrance of the highway in Orte, central Italy, yesterday. Hundreds of tractors drove in a noisy convoy through the road leading from the little town of Orte to the square in front of the entrance of the highway leading to Rome where Police was deployed
Italian farmers protest with their tractiors at the Santa Maria Capua Vetere toll booth, in Caserta, Italy, February 3Farmers gather with their parked tractors near the highway junction, in Orte, Italy, Saturday, February 3A cow stands next to a tractor as Italian farmers protest against EU agricultural policies, at Melegnano toll booth, near Milan, Italy, February 1Italian farmers stage a protest against European agricultural policies with their tractors outside Pirelli building, the Lombardy Region Council Building, in central Milan, Italy on February 1Protesting farmers with their tractors take part in a rally outside the annual Agrotica trade fair in the port city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, February 3Tractors are parked outside Thessaloniki’s International Fair during a Greek farmers’ protest against higher energy costs, lower state subsidies as well as demanding compensations from the recent floods, in Thessaloniki, Greece, February 3Farmers stage a protest at Thessaloniki International Fair, demanding dialogue with the government on electricity, fuel, and other expenses of agricultural production in Thessaloniki, Greece on February 3Dozens of tractors were parked in Thessaloniki, Greece, on February 3 as part of the protest
A Hesse farmers’ association estimated vehicle numbers at around 1,000, while police said 400 tractors took part before the protest ended in the early afternoon.
A protest on the Dutch-Belgian border that had shut down a main motorway was wound down on Saturday evening, the Belga news agency reported.
Farmer discontent has also affected non-EU Switzerland, where around 30 tractors paraded in Geneva on Saturday in the country’s first such protest since the movement started elsewhere in Europe.
‘As a young person, it scares us a lot not knowing if there is a future in our profession,’ said Antonin Ramu, a 19-year-old apprentice winegrower.
He welcomed the transition to a more environmentally friendly agriculture but asked for more help in the face of competition from countries without the same standards.
In Spain, the three main farmers’ unions have announced more protests in the coming weeks, with a major demonstration planned for Barcelona on February 13.
In France, security forces cleared the few remaining blockades of motorways a day after the main agricultural union called for them to be lifted following government concessions.
Farmers drive with their tractors on a freeway at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, February 3More than 2000 farmers drove around the airport to protest against the government’s measure to scrap tax breaks on the diesel they use, pictured above on February 3Tractors block a road in Ramin, Germany, Friday February 2. Farmers and entrepreneurs blocked the German-Polish border crossing at Linken in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald with around a dozen vehicles on Friday morningDozens of farmers with tractors attend the farmers protest that shaking Europe on Saturday, drawing attention to the growing issues in the agricultural sector, in Geneva, Switzerland on February 3A police officer (right) walks past Swiss farmers with tractors, including one with a Swiss flag and a placard reading ‘agriculture, we dream of it and then die of it’ during a protest over pay, tax and regulations at the Plaine de Plainpalais square, downtown Geneva, on February 3Two women talk next a pram adorned with a banner reading in French ‘Less bananas more farmers’ during a Swiss farmers’ protest over pay, tax and regulations at the Plaine de Plainpalais square, downtown Geneva, on February 3Swiss farmers drive tractors, including one with a placard reading “our end will be your hunger” during a protest over pay, tax and regulations near the Plaine de Plainpalais square, downtown Geneva, on February 3This aerial photograph taken on February 2, 2024, shows Dutch and Belgian farmers taking part in a road blockade near the border crossing between Belgium and the Netherlands, in Arendonk, as farmers protest across Europe to demand better work conditions to grow, produce and maintain a proper incomeDutch and Belgian farmers with tractors block the border crossing at Arendonk, between the Netherlands and Belgium, February 2
Their mobilisation had forced new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government to pause a plan to reduce pesticide and insecticide use and offer an aid package of 400 million euros.
Romanian farmers and hauliers also announced the end of their road-block protest on Saturday following an agreement with the government.
The EU is scrambling to address concerns ahead of European Parliament elections this year.
The European Commission on Thursday promised measures to defend the ‘legitimate interests’ of EU farmers, notably the much criticised administrative burdens of the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy.
