In recent years, European farmers have found themselves ensnared in a complex web of challenges.Continue reading
Like other countries across Europe, farmers in Slovakia have had enough of the wave of regulations and injustices that are strangling them. Today, on February 22, the Slovak Agricultural and Food Chamber and the Slovak Chamber of Agriculture are organizing a nationwide demonstration, ma7.sk reports. Krisztián Forró, a candidate for president in Slovakia, says it is unacceptable that the European Union is putting its own farmers at a competitive disadvantage.
In connection with the farmers’ demonstration, Krisztián Forró, president of the Hungarian Alliance party and the only Hungarian nationality candidate for the presidency of the republic, said that it is unacceptable that the European Union applies double standards. As he explained, it imposes strict regulations and rules on EU farmers, while there are no such restrictions and limitations on products imported from non-EU member states.
It is not acceptable for the EU to put its own farmers at a competitive disadvantage. I fully understand the farmers’ discontent and I support them,”
he said.
Krisztián Forró, president of the Hungarian Alliance party. Photo: Facebook/Forró Krisztián
“Southern and eastern Slovakia is actually the breadbasket of the country, where most farmers work. (…) We have repeatedly raised our voices about the fact that Slovakia could be fully self-sufficient in food if the government provided adequate support and assistance to domestic farmers. Food self-sufficiency is a strategic advantage for all countries, and Slovakia has everything it takes to achieve it, precisely because of the highly fertile land in the southern and eastern regions of Slovakia.”
Today’s farmers’ demonstration in Slovakia will see around 2,000 tractors take to the streets across the country, with traffic blocked for a time, especially in city centers.
Laszlo Borovszký, director of the district chamber of agriculture, told ma7.sk that farmers are expected to come with 140 tractors to the demonstration in Galanta (Galánta). The machines will be lined up on the main street, and a podium is set up in front of the town hall where speeches will be made. “Of course, we have also consulted with the town council and the police, as there will be significant traffic restrictions, although we do not aim to stop life in the town. We will be doing a circuit around the city at around 11 o’clock,” the director said.
Bálint Jakubecz, owner of Agro-Jakubecz Ltd., will take part in the demonstration as a small farmer, who told ma7.sk that
income has fallen by a third because of imports, but expenditure and investment has increased because of EU regulations.”
According to him, those who have made 2023 break-even and not loss-making can be happy.
Fallowing is “increasing the amount of allergenic weeds and we are being held at bay with subsidies. There is also the question of green fuel and the issue of rights. Not to mention the unrelenting bureaucracy: I am slowly becoming an office worker, not a farmer,” he explained.
Via ma7.sk, Featured image: Facebook/MCC Brussels