Macedonian Tobacco Farmers Promise More Protests

After the ruling VMRO DPMNE party announced late last night that it would not change the law and guarantee farmers a higher price for tobacco, the protesters responded by declaring that their rallies would increase in intensity, and vowed to carry out acts of civil disobedience.

“We will call upon all the political parties that expressed their support for us to join us at protests starting on Thursday. We will go out in the streets, breaking windows, demanding our bread and practicing civil disobedience,” strike leader Kire Nedelkovski told media after hearing the news from the parliament.

The VMRO DPMNE, which holds a strong majority in parliament, decided not to change the law this year and to propose amendments to address the situation from next year. A proposed resolution tabled by the opposition Social Democrats, which urged the government to pay the difference between prices offered by purchasers and the price demanded by the farmers, did not pass.

“We sympathise with the hardship of the farmers but urge the opposition not to misuse their misery,” Silvana Boneva, who leads VMRO DPMNE lawmakers in parliament, said at the session.

Under the current law growers are obliged to sell their tobacco to the several big private purchasers if they want to receive state subsidies for the following year.

But they say the purchasers are duping them by unfairly assessing the quality of their tobacco in order to pay less. They want the government to guarantee a purchase price of three euros per kilo, which was last year's average price.

Tobacco is an important product in Macedonia, where some 30,000 families are supported by the crop. It takes up some 70 per cent of large-scale farming land, and is the second largest employer after the the public sector.

The situation outside the parliament building remained tense throughout the day on Tuesday. Farmers broke through the metal barrier set by the police and threw stones and flares at the assembly into the night.

Although minor incidents were reported, there were no major clashes between the police, which maintained a strong presence throughout the protest, and the several thousand tobacco growers that had gathered in the capital.

The tobacco growers' strike, meanwhile, has entered its fourth week. Farmers have stopped delivering tobacco and have been staging blockades of roads, railways and border crossings across the country, unsatisfied with the prices offered by tobacco buyers this year, some falling as low as one euro per kilo.

The tobacco purchasing season ends in March, and the protesters say they will hold onto their tobacco until they are guaranteed better prices.