Farmers take tractors to Vatican,urge pope to speak for them

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 18 - A group of Italian farmers protesting Italian and EU policies, high fuel costs, the low prices their products fetch and general hardship on Sunday took their tractors to the Vatican at the Holy See's invitation and urged Pope Francis to help them by speaking out on their behalf in their national and international campaign.
    The small tractors arrived at the Vatican Sunday morning for the pope's traditional Mass in St Peter's , Angelus prayer and blessing, and the farmers also brought their cow Ercolina, a symbol of their protest, which they had also brought to the recent Sanremo Song Festival.
    The farmers, part of some groups who are going forward with their protest after other groups called them off after the government gave them income tax breaks, also donated a tractor to the Argentine pontiff.
    "With this blessing we could find the strength to win the game," wrote the tractor protest organisations, awaiting the Pope's Angelus.
    'With great surprise today we received an email and a call from the Pope's secretariat,' they write in a message, 'with the blessing to enter and attend the mass in St Peter's Square in Rome with Ercolina2! "You are all invited without flags or tractors, we will meet around 10.00 a.m. in St Peter's Square." The farmers said they "thank the Pontiff for welcoming us and we invoke his support and blessing.
    "We donate a tractor, symbol of our toil".
    Pietro Megna, one of the spokespeople of the Agricoltori Italiani (Italian Farmers) group, told ANSA: "The Vatican and the Pope must lend their voice to our problems.
    "We are here in a symbolic way, we have brought a tractor, the cow Ercolina is also arriving, which was at Sanremo." he said the group had sent Pope Francis a letter outlining their grievances.
    Last week one group of farmers involved in the protests in Italy, on the back of demonstrations in other parts of Europe, said they would be standing down their 'garrison' of tractors in Rome after Meloni's government promised measures to help them.
    The help included tax breaks on the IRPEF income tax, with an exemption for earnings up to 10,000 euros and the rate halved for earnings between 10,000 and 15,000 euros. (ANSA).