HUNDREDS of tractors blocked a part of the highway near Bologna amid nationwide farmers’ protests against domestic and EU-wide agricultural policies.
At least 200 tractors in a large car park near the motorway in the Castel San Pietro Terme area while demonstrators rallied with Italian flags.
The farmers placed Italian flags in their tractors, as well as placards with slogans including ‘My Death is Yours’, and ‘Agriculture is Dying’.
Later, a large convoy of agricultural vehicles is shown driving through the highway exit and causing disruption to traffic.
Protesters said they will continue to hold this huge blockade until the government listens to their calls.
‘’For now, there are 200 tractors here. As people a bit more because we also have consumers here who are perhaps realizing that it is time for them to join us,’’ Carapia Gabriele, protest organizer said.
‘’Right now we are here as an all-out garrison which means we don’t know when we will leave. We don’t rule out blocking the motorway tollbooth near us to make our protest more understood,’’ he said.
‘’This government is not giving us a hand. We made a demonstration on January 22 but we saw that the government did not listen to us. Now we are blocking [the motorway exit] because the government has not listened to us. Let’s blockade and then see what happens,’’ Luisito Naldi, Italian farmer said.
‘’The message I want to send to this government is that they listen to us because we are ‘Made in Italy’. We are nothing else. We are the driving force of Italian food. This is what I want to send to the government and that it listens to us because we are the Italian people,’’ he added.
Aside from Italy, waves of tractor protests and blockades of major motorways have been taking place across Europe in recent months, involving thousands of farmers in Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Greece, and elsewhere.
Similar to farmers in other European countries, Italian farmers are protesting against red tape, high production costs, higher taxes, bureaucracy, rising fuel costs, EU environmental regulations, and cheaper imports from areas outside the EU like North Africa.
