The farmers' protest reaches Sanremo. Amadeus reads an extract from the statement of the movement that is shaking Europe.
“We protest to ask for dignity”, are some words contained in the statement from the protesting farmers which, as promised, arrived on stage Sanremo Festival. After Mahmood's moving performance with “How deep the sea is”, Amadeus breaks the pace of the race to read the words of the tractors' protest.
For weeks, tractors have been invading squares and motorways throughout Europe. The agricultural vehicle is the symbol of a big protest which asks the European institutions to listen. The agricultural sector in several countries of the Old Continent suffers from foreign competition. The laws which, according to the authors of the protest movement, are providing little protection for European agricultural workers and entrepreneurs would also be an obstacle.
Below are the words read by Amadeus live during the fourth evening of the 74th edition of the Sanremo Festival:
We farmers are not in the streets to ask for help or subsidies, but only to ensure that we are paid the right remuneration for the hard and irreplaceable work we do every day, thanks to which every citizen can eat every day. Unfortunately, this has not happened for some time, so much so that today most of the fruits of our labor are widely underpaid, with revenues that are well below the production costs.
The statement goes on to clarify that the protest aims first of all to “defend the dignity of all farmers”. Furthermore, it is requested “that the right value be paid to the productions”. In Sanremo, therefore, the tractor protest lands with the message of the farmers' note National coordination of agricultural redemption. The document had been sent to Rai specifically to be read on the Ariston stage.
Below is a full passage contained in the farmers' statement:
Italian farmers pay the price for bad decisions not based on science. Just think of community policies such as the green deal, the air quality directive or the regulation on pesticides, fortunately withdrawn by the EU Commission thanks to our protests; all these policies, in our opinion excessively unbalanced in favor of the environment, are to the detriment of all Italian agriculture, with particular reference to small companies. The sword of Damocles of the prices paid to farmers then weighs heavily on these issues. We remind everyone that we cannot plan the selling price of our products, because we are subjected to a market drugged by speculation, where the price paid to us is a tenth of what consumers pay. This is why we are protesting these days: we ask for a clear law that guarantees the fair distribution of value along the agri-food chain, with mutual benefits for agricultural producers and consumers. The prices paid to farmers have remained stable for thirty years, so much so that some products cost consumers up to ten times more. We are the only category that cannot rely on production costs and cannot apply the costs, suffering all the disadvantages of the market and possible bad weather of the season, despite having high and certain costs linked to sowing and production.
Concludes communicated sent to agencies and newspapers, in addition to the “reduced” form for the Sanremo live broadcast:
A Future for Agriculture and Made in Italy. All this simply because without agriculture there is no life, there is no food sovereignty, there is no freedom; we only ask for the possibility of continuing to honor the teachings of our parents and grandparents, who with respect, love and dignity led us to cultivate the value of the land and what it represents, with the one and only objective of leaving a world better for our children. We conclude with a greeting to Italy, to Rai and to you Amadeus. Thank you for giving farmers a voice in the temple of Italian music. In recent days we have insisted on wanting to go on stage ourselves for a single reason: to also show our faces, clean faces that represent the future of Italian agriculture and passionate eyes of those who still believe that, quoting Pope Francis, there is no it is humanity without cultivation of the land.
