Farmers in Italy, who have been protesting against the European Union’s (EU) agricultural policies, rising costs and cuts in support for the sector for some time, this time organized a convoy in the southern city of Naples.
Farmers, who have been continuing their protests since the beginning of the month with demonstrations and convoys of different scales from the north to the south of the country, added a new one in Naples.
According to reports in the Italian press, the farmers drove around the city center of Naples with around 100 tractors, stopping in front of a soup kitchen where they donated some of the produce they had collected from their farms in the morning. The farmers then took their tractors to the city’s promenade, where they explained the reasons for their protest to the citizens. The farmers hung Italian flags on their tractors as well as banners reading “You are ruining our future”.
Some citizens supported the farmers with applause as their convoy passed by.
Meanwhile, it was announced that the farmers, who held a symbolic demonstration convoy in the capital Rome last week, are preparing to hold a more comprehensive protest tomorrow.
According to media reports, the government is working to provide some relief to farmers, including a tax exemption up to a certain amount on agricultural income tax levied on farmers.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said after the EU Leaders’ Summit on February 1 in Brussels, Belgium, that the EU had made mistakes in its agricultural policies and that these needed to change.
Farmers in action in Europe
Farmers in many EU countries, particularly in Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Belgium, Poland, Italy and Hungary, are dissatisfied with the recent agricultural policies.
In most European countries, farmers are protesting with their tractors to draw attention to the problems they face.
Farmers in the EU are intensely critical of the Union’s agricultural policies, nature restoration targets, cuts in subsidies, high energy, fuel and fertilizer costs as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, cheap grain products from Ukraine and water saving measures.
Farmers criticize the EU for “making agricultural production more difficult by imposing strict rules on the use of carbon fertilizers and pesticides under the Green Deal.”
