According to Giorgia Meloni, the European Parliament elections will bring a change in agricultural policy

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Giorgia Meloni said that she understood the demands of the protesting farmers. The announced green transition policy of the European Union is “madness”, said the prime minister. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about who wants to save the environment at the expense of agriculture, instead of doing the same together with agricultural workers (..) they talked about a green transition, while it was an ideological transition,” said Giorgia Meloni. He added that the upcoming European Parliament elections will make the difference in changing the current agricultural policy. The prime minister emphasized that the current centre-right Roman government has always represented the interests of the agricultural sector.

Farmers’ demonstrations have been taking place in Italy since January 19

On Monday, the representatives of the farmers’ groups surrounding the cities with a siege ring of tractors met again with Francesco Lollobrigida, the head of the Rome Ministry of Agriculture. According to the government’s latest proposal, workers in the agricultural sector will be exempted from paying personal income tax up to a gross annual income of 10,000 euros, and an additional fifty percent tax discount up to 15,000 euros. Andrea Papa, the head of the farmer delegation leaving the ministry, acknowledged the result with satisfaction. Around a thousand tractors are already waiting along the roads leading into Rome. They came in several groups from different parts of the country, each with a different name and a different leader. The demands of the groups are also different. According to earlier announcements, they wanted to organize a mass demonstration on the field of the ancient Circus Maximus horse racetrack on Thursday afternoon.

After the consultation with the government, the group of farmers announced that they are ready to give up the movement

However, the organization requested permission for two tractors to drive into the city center as far as the Colosseum. On the other hand, two groups have announced a demonstration on Capitol Hill, in the square in front of the town hall located there, for Thursday. The authorities are trying by all means to avoid a line of tractors marching in Rome, as this could open the gates of all other cities to the farmers’ protestors. “The farmers’ protest against Europe is sacred, but war between their groups must be avoided, otherwise Europe will be the winner again,” said Luca Zaia, the president of Veneto, known as an agrarian region. He believed that the so-called zero-kilometer agricultural products represent the solution, as they do not pose the risk of artificial meat and meat products. Luca Zaia also called the Nutri-score nutritional labeling system a threat to Italian agriculture.

MTI