The president of the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP) warned this Thursday that the government is “dismantling” the Ministry of Agriculture and that the sector minister is the “executioner” of this “conceivable” action for agricultural producers .
“It is [o Governo] dismantling or having the Ministry of Agriculture dismantled made the Minister of Agriculture a hangman”complained Eduardo Oliveira e Sousa.
According to the CAP leader, speaking to the Lusa bureau at a CAP-promoted peasant demonstration in Portalegre, the government is “cutting” the Ministry of Agriculture in an “imaginable, unspeakable, intolerable” situation.
According to figures from the organization, more than 300 agricultural tractors entered the main streets of the city of Portalegre this Thursday, in a protest against the government’s policy for the agricultural sector. The demonstration, which was also attended by more than 1,200 farmers and representatives of 60 associations in the sector, criticized Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes.
Of the many criticisms leveled against the government, The president of the CAP focused his action on a stance against the extinction of the Regional Directorates of Agriculture (DRA) and their integration into the Coordination and Regional Development Commissions (CCDR), as well as the current absence of a Secretary of State for Agriculture.
“It’s not possible not to have regional directors, now we don’t have a secretary of state, a minister that we haven’t had for a while, because she acts as a minister, but she’s not a minister, she doesn’t have the power the ability to to be a minister and still less the ability to be a secretary of state,” he said.
“The post of Secretary of State should be held by someone who has knowledge of the matter, knowledge of regulations, who understands the countryside and agriculture, and this lady does not have that capacity,” he added.
For the president of CAP, the Minister of Agriculture only has the capacity to do “what someone has ordered”, which is to “destroy the Ministry” and “break apart” agriculture in Portugal.
Talking to Lusa, CAP general secretary Luís Mira stressed that the demonstration in Portalegre was the “biggest ever” in that regionbeing an indicator of the “outrage” farmers are currently living with.
Luis Mira also defended the implementation of the Rural Development Plan (PDR), regretting that “1,300 million euros” made available by Brussels have yet to be implemented under this plan.
“The government has not been able to place [verbas] among farmers,” he complained.
Also present at the demonstration, the parliamentary leader of the Chega Party, Pedro Pinto, expressed “solidarity” with the peasants in this struggle, defended the resignation of Minister Maria do Céu Antunes and added that, in a “future agreement board with the PSD, Chega will “claim” the agriculture portfolio.
Source: DN
