Farmers To Demonstrate In Budapest
The National Federation of Farmers’ Cooperatives and Farmers’ Groups (Magosz) will demonstrate with hundreds of tractors on Budapest’s Felvonulási tér on Monday, followed by a protest against the Agriculture Ministry in front of the Ministry’s building on Kossuth tér.
Magosz postponed its demonstration originally scheduled for Feb. 17, Friday, because other groups, namely the Pig Breeders’ Association, the Movement of Hungarian Farmers and Consumers and the Biokultúra Association, received right to hold a protest event on that day.
All groups demand the start of payments of EU funds to agricultural producers and the speeding up of state purchases of surplus wheat. However, the groups that demonstrated on the 17th demand answers to their requests by Feb. 22, otherwise they will continue rallying and will gather in front of Parliament building on Feb. 25. Meanwhile, Magosz has requested permits for demonstrations until Feb. 28 on the same spot.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development pledges to pay land-based EU funding to 80% of the claimants by the end of February, while 90% of the applicants will receive contributions of the Hungarian state, totaling HUF 92 billion, by mid-March.