A day after farmers and the government announced that they had reached an agreement and the protests were ending, two farmers’ protests surprisingly announced that their resentment continued. It is a curious detail that one of them is the National Association of Potato Producers, which is headed by Todor Dzhikov, who was the Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the last cabinet of Rumen Radev.
The protest takes place nearly a month before the rotation of power, in the days when GERB representatives have already announced that they are not satisfied with the work of the Agrarian Minister Kiril Vatev. In parallel, Radev talked about the emergence of an alternative to the current government. It became clear that Vesela Lecheva has patented the “March 3” political party brand.
Protest at the border
“Colleagues, in order to be heard, today at 11 a.m. we will block the approach to the Ilinden-Eksohi border crossing, to the village of Sadovo, after the junction for the village of Hadjidimovo. The blockade will last until 2 pm,” he wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
It is noteworthy that the first request is a review of the so-called The “Green Deal” of the EU, which really depends on all member countries and is not only within the power of the Bulgarian government.
Why protest?
In an earlier post, again on Facebook, Todor Dzhikov announced that
The National Potato Growers Association “has never participated and will never participate in match-fixing.”
And then he directly declared against the memorandum with the government.
“We do not support the decision taken to sign a memorandum with the texts agreed today between the government and the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber. We believe that this organization does not represent and does not currently protect the interests of all Bulgarian farmers. That is why we continue effective strike action and insist on a nationally responsible government policy for the entire “Agriculture” sector, he pointed out on Facebook.
Requests
First, for the government to take action and submit a request for a review of the “Green Deal” to the European Commission. Dzhikov explains that this request coincides with the position of all other striking agricultural producers in Europe, incl. and with that of the European association of farmers “Kopa Kodžeka”.
It is insisted that the import of agricultural products from third countries be stopped, incl. and from Ukraine, which are not produced according to European standards, or to introduce eco-taxes for these goods.
Additional compensations are also requested for farmers from mountainous and semi-mountainous regions
Hours earlier, after five days of protests, it was announced that the industry and the government had agreed to end the blockades. The disaffected demanded compensation from the state for the losses they suffered from the duty-free import of Ukrainian cereals into the EU.
After a meeting with Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, it was announced that an agreement had been reached that the smallest farms would receive the largest compensations. The so-called proof of losses, against which the farmers protested, will be only for those with more than 3 thousand acres.
