Protesting farmers blocked roads across Bulgaria

Dozens of locations across the country were blocked for two hours by tractors and heavy farming machines on February 6. Farmers are not accepting the proposed compensation package from the state and are demanding legislative changes and policy aimed at helping the sector. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister made a small concession by inviting the farmers back for talks tomorrow.

Hundreds of farmers with their own farming equipment took to the roads in dozens of locations across the country and blocked key stretches of roads. They disagree with the BGN 150m package of measures proposed by the state last week.

Bulgarian farmers protest: Tractors block roads across the country

They also disagree with the government's proposal that farmers would have to submit their tax returns to the National Revenue Agency to check whether they were making a loss. Farmers also disagree with the Green Deal and the Green Measures being imposed by the EC, because according to farmers they are detrimental to Bulgarian agriculture.

Prime Minister Denkov invited them again to a meeting tomorrow at the Council of Ministers to discuss the proposal for a new memorandum and made a slight concession regarding the tax returns. Nikolay Denkov said that the draft laws that the farmers insist for are in a process of preparation and in the next two months 5 of the 7 draft laws will be proposed for discussion.

During the protest, farmers from Veliko Tarnovo set fire to straw and wool on the main road Sofia-Varna. They poured grain and spilled milk on the road, threw Bulgarian salami and sausages. They declared that their protest was against the agriculture minister and the negligence of the ministry.

"I'm ready to shut down, I'm giving up, I don't want to deal, I'm shutting down, I'll rip up the fields, I'll bring in bulldozers, I'llput in some photovoltaics and I don't want to other with farming at all. I am ready to sell and give to someone else," said Ivan Atanaschev, a farmer from Gorna Oryahovitsa.

"We are not going to let what happened in September, namely being cheated. We will not allow this to happen again and the best thing is that we are all together," said Ventsislav Varbanov, chairman of the Association of Farmers in Bulgaria.

The minister most blatantly lied , saying that we were paid everything. We have not been paid," Luboslav Koyunjiyski, a livestock farmer said.

"We do not agree with the conditions that the European Union put too many demands on us. The prices have collapsed because of unregulated imports from Ukraine. Separately we have such obligations with these green deals, we are not allowed to cultivate slopes. Additionally, now we must probably appoint one, two people to deal with our documentation. So much documents, they turn us into accounting houses," said farmer Vladimir Dobrinov.

Farmers from Russe region blocked three junctions for 2 hours.

Under the slogan that their protest is not for money, but to have jobs, farmers from Russe blocked the approaches to Danube Bridge One. They demanded changes in the legislation to ensure the sustainability and prospects of Bulgarian agriculture.

In Vidin, tractors blocked the city's ring road to Danube Bridge 2 and closed both lanes to traffic.

Protesting farmers closed the Varna-Burgas main road.

In Varna, tractors closed the main road from the sea capital to Burgas. The protesters vowed that the roadblocks will continue until their demands are met.

"In any case, there will be bankruptcies. At the moment maybe the farmers don't know, but not just the farmers, the whole industry does not know" said Plamen Nikolov, a land tenant in Avren municipality.

More than 20 tractors and agricultural machinery closed the road junction "Petolachka" near Yambol.

Grain growers, cattle breeders and beekeepers protested at three locations in Dobrich region and blocked the approaches to the border crossings of Kardam and Durankulak, as well as the road to Silistra.

"A great figure has come out about how we have earned 2 billion, that is, by the way, the subsidies paid to the sector. To make our production for 2023, we gave, took out and financed an extra 40%! That is to say, this profit is not there, it does not exist, it is invested in chemicals, fertilizers and seeds!", Radostina Zhekova, member of the board of the National Grain Producers Association said.

All these demands were answered in the afternoon by the authorities, who invited the farmers to new negotiations tomorrow at 18:00. The Prime Minister announced a relief mechanism for grain growers and the tax returns they had to submit to prove losses.

PM Denkov urged protesting farmers to return to the negotiating table

"We are proposing a simplified procedure in which a return will be prepared, this return will set out the types of expenditure and income to be reported through the relevant documents and that way we can move on. The only way is to figure out how to assist those who need help and not to give out funds on a shoestring," Prime Minister Denkov said.

Earlier today, Vice President Iliana Iotova criticised the cabinet's decisions regarding the sector.

“I do not accept the tone of the Council of Ministers yesterday, of the Prime Minister, who is on the principle of divide and rule. Setting some groups of farmers against others. There are more problems. There are problems with the implementation of the green deal. This is a major problem more for producers in Western Europe," Iliana Iotova said.

There will be a national farmers' protest tomorrow across the country.