Hongrie : la colère des paysans

Les agriculteurs hongrois sont prêts à engager le fer avec leur gouvernement sur la question de l’allocation des aides agricoles distribuées dans le cadre de la PAC, écrit Judit Szakacs  dans Transitions Online.

Thousands of farmers have packed the center of Budapest for over a week to protest government agricultural policies and delayed payments of European Union subsidies. One year ago, farmers also descended on the capital to protest farm policy. This time, they came on their tractors.

“We’re staying as long as we have to. The family will send some mutton every day,” an elderly farmer told public television cameras as he stirred his stew in a traditional pot in Budapest’s central Felszabadulas Square. Since 21 February this area adjacent to the famous Heroes’ Square has become a base for 2,000 angry farmers and their 900 tractors parked in neat rows.

Thanks to the generosity of city dwellers, that mutton might not be needed. “I opened my tractor and loaves of bread and sausages fell on me. We’ve got so much stuff from locals that our food and accommodation for the demonstrations are taken care of,” farmer Laszlo Gemes told Hungarian Television. The news is filled with images of locals bringing hot tea and mulled wine to warm demonstrators against the freezing weather.

Talking about talking

The protests by a consortium of farmers’ organizations were meant to be apolitical. But as they have continued, politics has come to the fore. 

At the biggest rally to date, on 26 February, the crowd booed angrily whenever a member of the government was mentioned. Flags of several right-wing organizations waved, and the extremist leader Istvan Csurka showed up to stroll among the crowd, promising to bring his almost-defunct party back into parliament. 

Fueling the suspicion of political engagement, on 27 February, farmers’ representatives said they would no longer negotiate with Agriculture Minister Imre Nemeth but wanted to talk directly to Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. Gyurcsany rejected this call. 

The farmers’ refusal to deal with Nemeth is just the latest in a series of sometimes farcical delays in the negotiating process. The first few days of the protest were taken up by negotiations on where to hold the real negotiations. Farmers rejected holding talks in the Agriculture Ministry, saying they had bad memories of the building and its bureaucratic environment. During the ensuing stalemate, at one point representatives of farmers and the government stood at opposite ends of Kossuth Square.

No sooner had the parties agreed to meet at an agricultural institute than Nemeth cancelled the talks on 25 February, citing farmers’ refusal to cancel a demonstration previously arranged for the next day. As this article was written, the standoff continued in Budapest, and in the countryside, tractors were partially blocking major roads in six counties.

The demonstrators are entitled by law to continue their protests until 13 March. Although many say they have no intention of leaving empty-handed, the approach of spring means they must soon attend to urgent work in the fields. In the meantime, Budapesters are complaining about the disruption but also coming to take in the rare sight of so many farm machines clustered in the heart of the capital.

To read the article in full, visit the Transitions Online website.