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.
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