According to the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic, Czech farmers are preparing for further protest actions. They should probably take place in the second half of May, spokeswoman of the Agrarian Chamber Barbora Pánková said on Friday. She described the situation of farmers as critical and unsustainable. In the Czech Republic, farmers’ protests last took place on March 20, when more than 1,600 pieces of agricultural machinery took to the roads.
“It is still true that we are expecting a written response from the Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborny on our priorities. After that, the management of the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic, the Agricultural Union of the Czech Republic, the Initiative for Agricultural and Food Enterprises, the Society of Young Farmers of the Czech Republic, the Czech-Moravian Association of Agricultural Entrepreneurs and the Association of Private Agriculture will evaluate the situation Olomouc region,” said Pánková.
Farmers demand to support employment in the countryside with discounts on social insurance, to return the property tax to the level before the consolidation package or to cancel the taxation of the European operating subsidy from the first pillar of the common agricultural policy of the European Union and to limit imports from countries outside the EU. Another demand of farmers is not to cut national support, and if the European Commission allows for an increase in extraordinary aid to farmers from European or national sources, the Czech Republic should do so to the maximum extent possible.
Výborný has previously stated that the government will add 550 million crowns to the welfare of animals this year, or that next year it will support employment in the countryside with discounts on social insurance with two billion crowns. However, what the farmers do not agree on, according to him, is the return of the property tax to the level before the consolidation package.
