Dissatisfied with the non-payment of subsidies and the state of agriculture, Vukovar-Srijem farmers began today with the announced peaceful protest by parking tractors along the southern bypass of Vinkovci and in Bošnjaci in the Županja area and Ilača along the state road Vinkovci-Tovarnik.
"We demand that the Government fully fulfill the ‘Đakovo Agreement’, that is, that farmers be paid the overdue debt for subsidies from 2008 amounting to 205 million kuna and for subsidies in livestock and crop production that should have already been paid as promised by the Government, which has still not been fulfilled," said Tomislav Pokrovac, president of the Croatian Peasant’s Union (HSS) of Vukovar-Srijem County, the organizer of the protest, to reporters at the southern bypass of Vinkovci.
He stated that instead of the agreed promissory note for overdue subsidies, today farmers received only a notification from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development informing them that they are entitled to receive subsidies. "Unfortunately, we have been deceived again. We know what a promissory note looks like. This is just a piece of paper, and the Government and the Ministry should not allow this," said Pokrovac, adding that farmers do not want to agree "that the burden of the recovery of the Croatian economy, which Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor speaks about, ultimately falls most heavily on farmers and workers."
