Candidates of all countries for the European Parliament must not neglect farmers. On the border between Spain and France the farmers' unions staged new protests calling for concessions on fuel, more favorable economic conditions for exports and new limits on imports from countries such as Ukraine. The wind of rebellion is blowing again a few days before the elections with farmers from two strong EU countries lighting the fuse again. The 500 who gathered along strategic points of the Franco-Spanish border had a mandate a precise signal to the parties involved in the electoral campaign for Strasbourg and Brussels. This winter's mobilizations have only been suspended, please know that requests are still open. Who will welcome them? The reward in votes is guaranteed.
All the leaders have addressed the topic in rallies and talk shows, but evidently they have not been as convincing as the tractor movement wanted and wants. Agriculture is the second compartment of the EU and the force of impact of the most agitated nationalisms, at the end of the legislature, undermined the cornerstones of that common policy - CAP - that the "Ursula coalition" had laboriously built. The nationalist side of agriculture acts as a barrier to any community, progress and sustainability operation. The EU wants to destroy identities and traditions, it is said. Environmental quality and innovative methods in the management of agricultural companies are seen as smoke and mirrors spread by European bodies which are unfortunately unsuccessful in involving the main actors.
The expensive underrated fuel
The negotiating tables and working commissions between Brussels and Strasbourg have generated the monster of those against-for, of the collection of agricultural contributions at gunpoint. The CAP financial plan approved by the European Parliament is 380 billion euros until 2027. It is a third of the Union budget which does not disgust farmers and breeders at all. The increase in the cost of fuel, the road standard of tractors, is a truth. It should have immediately triggered support interventions for the entire sector, before the flag ended up in the hands of ultranationalist leaders. The EU Commission did not do so. The left did not understand that a world linked to it was moving away and that the most conservative and anti-environmental groups were ready to undermine a nascent system. The economic and social framework of the Green Deal needed to be updated and there would be no room for rivals.
On the eve of next Sunday's elections, the political circle that has moved to the countryside has been definitively clarified. By opposing the imports from Ukraine, the agricultural protest overlapped with opposition to aid to the country hit by Russian aggression. The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban he has become the spokesperson for a mixture of boasting, identity protectionism and environmental and climate denialism. There is no difference between producing electricity with coal-fired power plants and national power with "home-made products".
What's after June 9th?
What does the day after June 9th have in store for us? The errors of the outgoing European Commission can be repaired if we accept the principle that a new way of producing, nourishing and consuming must arise from the fields and the ability of farmers. The right has an anti-historical idea when the world was divided into self-regulated territories. The defense of traditions and the borders within which we sow, grow and sell is weakened by the progress and technologies that Europe needs to win with quality and open up to world markets.
Austerity and protectionism in a vital sector for 450 million people, they have caused enormous damage to health, the environment, companies and exports. Those who raise the fear of insect flours, Chinese tomatoes, and Ukrainian wheat on family tables prefer tumbles to long jumps. We will vote to avoid dangerous tumbles and to displease the "cheese and pepper" sovereignists.
