The authorities are doing everything possible to help farmers affected by the harvest, but it’s their right to decide how to act. This is how Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu responded to the farmers’ announcement regarding the start of protests. The head of the legislature said that the lawmakers gave two readings to a draft law that allows farmers to suspend payment obligations to creditors for a period of six months, IPN reports.

Farmers from the south of the Republic of Moldova announced that they will protest starting September 16 on the Gotești-Cahul route and on the Cahul-Giurgiulești belt, asking the authorities to declare a state of emergency in agriculture. The Speaker noted that it’s the right of farmers to mount protests.

“It’s their right to decide how to act. Deputy Prime Minister Bolea discussed with some of the farmers, explained to them that we must also take into account the impact that this crisis has on those who come with fertilizers as they also somehow lend to farmers. We must take into account everyone’s interests because if some are disadvantaged or an element of the entire chain of producers is affected, this will also have repercussions for other beneficiaries in this sector. I want to tell the farmers that we are doing everything possible to help them,” Igor Grosu stated in the program “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.

On Friday, Parliament gave two readings to a draft law that gives farmers the possibility to suspend payment obligations towards creditors for a period of six months. According to the document, the obligation to pay the accumulated outstanding debts, as well as the due installments related to loans, representing interest, commissions and penalties, owed by farmers in 2024 will be suspended.

“It’s the first time that we come up with such a derogation. Through this law we exempt them from particular expenses they have to incur when applying for certificates that state their situation. They would have had to spend some extra money and waste time to get these certificates, with which they would later go to talk to the creditors. Next week, Minister Bolea will travel to Brussels where he will present the law that we adopted after giving it two readings and will try to find other ways to help the farmers,” stated Speaker Grosu.

Earlier, the Commission for Emergency Situations decided to allocate 100 million lei from the Government’s Intervention Fund to help farmers affected by drought.