Coldiretti demonstrates in Brussels: ‘Von der Leyen, don’t turn off Europe’

Brussels – Coldiretti staged a coordinated demonstration in Brussels and Rome today (15 July) to “say no to the attempt by the Europe of bureaucrats to shut down agriculture, food production and food security.” This demonstration was organized as a preventive measure, ahead of the presentation of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework tomorrow. The MFF is the plan that defines how the EU will allocate its resources across various sectors over seven years. The next one, which will be presented by the Commission tomorrow, will commence in 2028 and must be approved by the states and the European Parliament. Coldiretti’s demonstration aims to prevent cuts in the agricultural sector. 

A Coldiretti banner was lowered from the façade of the Farm Europe headquarters on Berlaymont square in front of the European Commission building, accompanied by two banners lifted into the air by yellow balloons with the clear message: “Welcome to Vonderland. This is not Europe.” In the square, alongside President Ettore Prandini and some members of the confederal council, hundreds of young farmers from all over Italy marched. It was “the symbol of a generation that is asking for a future made of work, dignity, and participation,” the organization stressed. 

At the same time, another demonstration is taking place in Rome to support the same demands: “Without agriculture, there is no democracy or food sovereignty.”

Through this peaceful mobilization, Coldiretti denounces the “real risk” that, under the leadership of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, “the European Union will take a technocratic drift, ignoring and silencing Parliament’s choices, and sacrificing agriculture to finance policies that run counter to the democratic mandate.”