Takes to highway between Bombarral and Caldas da Rainha
Farmers, like police, are back showing their anger today, with a new ‘slow march’ protest in the so called ‘western region’ of Portugal, between Bombarral and Caldas da Rainha.
On the island of São Miguel in the Azores, farmers are also meeting later this evening to decide on their ‘new actions’ of protest.
All this comes as yesterday, in Brussels, CAP – the national federation of Portuguese farmers – emerged from a meeting with the European Commissioner to say that they had been told that the European Commission will speed up the approval of farm subsidy payments, but “the ball is in the Portuguese government’s court”.
And this has always been the problem – the way the Portuguese government has dealt with such balls.
Today’s protest in the west has once again seen farmers accuse the minister of agriculture (Maria de Céu Antunes) of lying and “no longer worrying about the sector as she is on the way out” (this being a reference to the looming elections).
José António Marcelino, part of the slow march in Bombarral this morning, told Lusa that as far as he is concerned, “the only thing (the minister) is doing is lying. She is leaving, and lying is easy because she’ll be gone in no time…”
Today’s action is to reinforce farmers’ problematic situations; their issues with constantly changing rules and regulations – and their hopes that politicians will start listening to what they have to say.
“Anyone who wins these elections, has to start looking at agriculture in a different way”, said José António Marcelino. “We will need a very strong minister of agriculture to defend the sector here and in Europe.
“Right now, we are not asking anything of the current government, nor the minister who never existed and never wanted to know about us. There would be no point meeting with her”, he reinforced.
As reports have explained, part of the problems in the agriculture sector centre on ’rigorous controls’ for European farmers who are then faced with competition from cheap imports from countries that have not been bound by the same controls.
“We cannot receive products that comes from outside Europe, produced with pesticides that we haven’t used for many years”, he stressed. “The rules have to be the same for everyone”.
There are, of course, many other issues – like the elevated costs of agricultural diesel and electricity, the taxes on the sector, the length of time it has taken NOT to address key issues:
“We cannot let water hurtle into the sea when it rains, and not take advantage of it. There has to be investment for the situation here not to get as bad as it is in the Algarve”, said Marcelino.
This slow march began early this morning, and will wind its way slowly through the region, snarling up traffic and generally making itself felt.
Meantime, farmers in the Azores are just as fed up, and due to meet this evening to decide the ‘next forms of protest’. Their demands are more centred on reducing taxes on agricultural diesel, reducing the cost of animal feed, speeding up licensing for agricultural explorations and authorising the clearing of scrubland for ‘other purposes’.
Back in Brussels, CAP is focused on fighting Portugal’s issues (without the help of the government).
A request to end the obligation to rotate crops has been met very positively: “The commissioner said that not only did he agree, but he was going to take a proposal along the same lines to the College of Commissioners. I’m very pleased,” said CAP president Álvaro Mendonça e Moura.
Further meetings are taking place today, with the agricultural confederations of Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands to “analyse the general situation of farmers in Europe”. Then, there will be a meeting with MEPs and a meeting with Portugal’s Permanent Representation to the European Union (REPER).
The trip ends tomorrow with a visit to an agricultural production site in Flanders, writes Lusa.
