Farmers Start Protests across Serbia at Noon on May 16

Dairy farmers are block traffic in Ravni Gaj (BETAPHOTO/Gordana Mirovic)

A number of Serbian farmers started protests in several Serbian towns at noon on May 16, after Prime Minister [Ana Brnabic] the day before had refused all the demands submitted by several associations of cattle breeders and farmers last week. They were expecting some of their demands to be accepted.

A representative of the Initiative for the Survival of Serbia’s Farmers, Djoka Curcic, on May 16 said that farmers had headed on their agricultural machinery to the Novi Sad Fair where they would gather at noon as start the protest. He told BETA that farmers and cattle breeders had headed on their tractors to several cities and towns across Serbia, including Belgrade, Subotica, Pozarevac, Pancevo, Dolovo, Bavaniste...

“We will remain at our meeting points until our demands are met, meaning also overnight, while we will be making decisions on further activities, including road blockades as we go along,” Curcic said.

In the morning on May 16, farmers from Serbia’s central region of Sumadija drove tractors through the streets of the town of Raca protesting the difficult situation in agriculture and the state’s indifference to their problems.   

The Initiative for the Survival of Serbia’s Farmers, Our Milk Association, Farmers of Banat, farmers of Bavaniste and Stig, and several other associations demand state subsidies of EUR300 per hectare, guaranteed RSD75 per liter of milk VAT excluded, duty free and VAT free price of diesel, and RSD40,000 in subsidies per head of cattle.

 The participants of the protest said that in the afternoon police prevented farmers from Stara Pazova from going to Belgrade in their tractors and convening in front of Serbian parliament. Policy stopped a column of around 50 tractors from entering downtown Kraljevo.

Around 30 tractors driven by disgruntled farmers arrived in downtown Subotica and announced that unless their requests were met they would head for Belgrade on May 19.