VITERBO, Italy – Italian farmers protesting against red tape and cheap imports from outside the European Union headed to Rome in a tractor convoy on Monday, while their northern colleagues led cattle through Milan. I passed by the street.
Farmers in Tuscany and other agricultural regions headed south toward the capital carrying Italian flags and hand-painted signs with slogans such as “No farmers, no food.”
They were expected to gather on the outskirts of Rome before further protests erupted later in the week.
“We are going to Rome to confront the politicians to solve our problems,” said Tuscan farmer Davide Rosati.
Italian farmers share many of the grievances expressed by farmers in other parts of Europe during a wave of protests over the past few weeks.
They complain that their products are being undermined by cheap imports from regions outside the European Union such as North Africa, rising fuel costs and the impact of EU measures to protect the environment and combat climate change. There is.
Protests have so far subsided in France and Germany, but appear to have intensified elsewhere in the EU. Angry farmers once again blocked the Dutch-Belgian border highway between Maastricht and Liège on Monday.
In Milan, Italy’s financial capital, a small group of farmers with their cattle protested in front of the Lombardy regional government building, an unusual sight in a part of the city dominated by modern skyscrapers.
Italian farmers are also calling for the reinstatement of income tax cuts introduced in 2017, which the government abolished in the 2024 budget law.
Speaking during a visit to Japan on Monday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy was doing more to support farmers than some of its EU neighbors.
“Of course, there is always room for improvement, and we will always listen to the demands of our essential workers,” she said.
He pointed out that the government has maintained fuel subsidies for farmers and increased the funding allocated to agriculture in the post-COVID-19 recovery plan from €5 billion to €8 billion.
Italy’s peasant protests are led by a number of individual groups and are not organized by Italy’s main agricultural lobby, the Coldiretti, which has close ties to the government.
(Additional reporting by Geert de Clercq, Crispian Balmer, Alvise Armelli; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Ros Russell)
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