After discussions with senior officials, the farmers decided to suspend the protest until Tuesday as they are waiting for a final response from Prime Minister Dorin Recean. If this does not come, they will stage a tractor march around the Government Building.
Contacted by IPN for a comment, the chairman of the Association “Force of Farmers” Alexandru Slusari said that the tractors will remain in the Great National Assembly Square until Tuesday, except for some of the units of transport that need to become involved in harvesting.
The protesting farmers had a meeting with Prime Minister Dorin Recean on Thursday evening. According to them, the discussion was strange. They were earlier assured by President Maia Sandu that the EU’s response to the request for financial assistance for farmers growing grain and oilseeds will become clear in two days. The Speaker told them that 200 million lei has been identified for paying subsidies to them, while the Premier was evasive, telling them that on Tuesday morning he will provide a concrete response as to the value of subsidies and the time limit for paying these.
“The farmers have reasonable suspicions to believe that the authorities are dallying even if the Association showed maximum flexibility in the negotiations and proposed allocating initially at least 350 million lei for saving the small and medium-sized farmers,” the Association “Force of Farmers” said in a press release. It noted that if no response comes on June 27, the farmers will react harshly. “We will not allow the small and medium-sized farmers to go bankrupt together with the villages and to transform Moldova into the estate of 3-4 transnational companies.”
The farmers have protested for several days in the Great National Assembly Square. On Tuesday, they went on a column along the main artery of Chisinau with their tractors up to the rotary on Calea Ieșilor St and then returned to central Chisinau, stopping in front of the Parliament Building, where they talked to Speaker Igor Grosu. They seek help from the authorities in order to avoid insolvency. demand that the Government should pay 3,000 lei subsidies per ha of grain corps of the first level at least, clear all the overdue subsidies, ban the import of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine, persuade the Giurgiulesti Port to export first Moldovan agricultural products and modify the VAT refunding procedure.
