CHISINAU, Nov 23 Farmers on hundreds of units agricultural machinery entered the capital of Moldova, they began the active phase of the protest, the correspondent reports.
Earlier on Thursday, a group of protesters sent their demands to Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean. Without waiting for his answer, the demonstrators decided to head to the city center with their equipment.
“They are not even trying to hear us, the prime minister suddenly left the city to meet with the winner of the local elections in Calarasi. This is now important to the country’s leadership, not us. It’s sad,” complained Ion Bytka, a farmer from the Falesti district.
Before leaving for Chisinau, the police intervened in the actions of the demonstrators, demanding that they clear the roadway. At some point, a fight broke out between farmers and farmers. The protesters were pushed back. However, several columns still managed to enter the city.
“We were denied the usual “green corridor” that we asked for — so that there would be police escort and there would be no chaos in the city. The police provoked a brawl,” one of the leaders of the Farmers’ Power association, Alexander Slusar, told reporters.
Protesters are demanding that the government introduce a moratorium on debt penalties against grain producers, as well as increase financial assistance to the sector, which suffered from last year's drought and falling grain prices.
The association noted that 200 units of agricultural machinery were involved in the protest.
Earlier, Moldovan President Maia Sandu said that Chisinau would provide assistance to Ukraine with the export of grain as part of the “solidarity corridor” initiative. In September, Moldova and Ukraine also agreed to extend the liberalization of cargo transportation until the end of 2025; the decision was approved following a meeting of the joint Moldovan-Ukrainian commission on international road transport.
On September 15, the European Commission decided not to extend restrictions on the import of four types of Ukrainian agricultural products into several EU border countries, but obliged Kyiv to introduce export control measures. After this, the authorities of Slovakia, Hungary and Poland announced that they were extending the ban unilaterally.
In June, Moldovan farmers took part in protests to draw the attention of the authorities to their problems. They advocated reducing the VAT on grain, demanded restrictions on grain imports from Ukraine and wanted access to European funds for the agricultural sector and an increase in the national agricultural development fund.