Magyar News, 2004. szeptember-2005. augusztus (15. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-04-01 / 8. szám
EXHAUST FUMES FARMERS ARE FUMING Í ROM EXHA ÚTION FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS It is hard to keep track of what is going on in Hungary. The government is made up of very rich people, sometimes referred to as the millionaires’ government. Prime Minister Gyurcsany remarked that those should be in charge who proved to be successful. Day-by-day many questions come to the surface in regard to the source of success. In past issues we were able to touch on some of these problems. At the present time the Hungarian farmers came into the limelight. For the last couple of weeks they show up on hundreds of tractors all over the country, and about fifteen hundred of them gathered in a launching place in the center of Budapest. They are demonstrating for their rights, for proper treatment so they could make a living and eventually save the country. So what are they talking about? Last years crop was plentiful. Yes, but it is in mounds, some luckily in warehouses, most being held to sell. The government not taking proper steps in the European Union to open the tough western market for the Hungarians. The best offer is for May when the Union market will pay about $85.00 per ton. Wake up! All that grain sitting around, costing money to keep. Then there is the rotation of crop. One cannot grow the same type of product year after year because it depletes the soil. We saw what could happen when the Soviet was calling the shots. I remember The tractors by the hundreds take to the roads from all over the country. Some demonstrate by closing down one side of the road, others head straight to Budapest to show support for the negotiating team. attending a meeting, at the Lake Balaton, when the Hungarian agricultural experts proved that the Soviet demand of the size of the land, and not the amount of grain, destroyed the soil. The proper rotation would bring ten times the amount at the harvest, then what they were getting “obeying” the Soviet. To be able to establish the rotation the farm needs money. Money that is sitting in deteriorating mounds of grain. The farmer has to be able to live, take care of equipment and of the animals, purchase fresh seed to sew for what the rotation needs. Besides in the European Union the farmers receive monetary help according to the size of the cultivated land. Hungary is far behind Germany, France and all the others, receiving far less then what it should be. As of now the subsidy is around $200.00 for one and a half acres. The Union covers 80% and the rest is to be paid by the government So where is the money? The government says that they paid some of the farmers. What about the rest who also should be paid? Now they say that they are going to take care of it. As it turns out there is no money to do it. The farmers are protesting, all they are asking for is what is rightfully their. The farmers are acting according to the rules that were set up at the beginning. There were people in the thousands who interrupted the setting of the negotiating Page 1
