The leader of one of the groups of
farmers who have been staging protests with their tractors to
draw attention to their plight as part of Europe-wide
demonstrations said Saturday that a new protest will take place
at Rome's Circus Maximus arena next Thursday.
Danilo Calvani, the leader of Cra Agricoltori 'Betrayed Farmers'
group, said the protests would not stop after Premier Giorgia
Meloni met agricultural associations on Friday and pledged to
help them and the EU dropped a proposed law to make farmers cut
the use of pesticides by half by 2030.
"There will be at least 20,000 people," said Calvani, announcing
next Thursday's protest.
"A group of our tractors will depart in a convoy from Cecchina
and reach the heart of Rome, going as far as Circus Maximus.
"There should be about 15 vehicles, escorted by the forces of
law order. "Thursday's will only be the first of our
demonstrations. Our protest will go on".
A handful of tractors went into central Rome on Friday, parading
around the Colosseum, and a bigger protest was staged on the
city's GRA motorway ring-road in the evening.
But farmers who went to protest at Sanremo have gone away after
the presenter of the Sanremo Song Festival, Amadeus, read out a
statement by stressing that they were not seeking additional
subsidies or handouts, but measures to make sure they get a fair
price for their produce, saying their revenues often do not
cover their production costs at the moment.
The farmers' from another protest group, Riscatto, are pondering
their next move, although sources said they are reasonable
satisfied at Friday's developments.
These include the government saying it would drop plans to scrap
an exemption on income-tax Irpef for farmers and would change it
instead so it is better targetted to those in need.
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