Vice-President scolds EU

Pernkopf scolds EU: “Stupid agricultural policy!”

Angry German farmers marched through the city center of Bonn in a convoy and demonstrated for more justice. Such images have so far been virtually absent in Austria.(Bild: (c) www.VIENNAREPORT.at)

Large farmers' demonstrations and mega protests in half of Europe come as no surprise to the Lower Austrian Farmers' Union. Because it wants to know why Austria's farmers, unlike their colleagues in Germany or France, are hardly making a fuss. "Although we are not an island of the blessed here either," says Stephan Pernkopf, the vice-president of the province, who is particularly harsh on the EU.

Lower Austria is the breadbasket of the Republic. In view of the protests in other EU countries as well as in neighboring Germany, the local farmers' association is now speaking out. "If you want to shut down agricultural production in Europe, you have to produce more elsewhere and import more. This is not only stupid, but also hypocritical," says Stephan Pernkopf, head of the association, sharply criticizing the EU's "anti-agricultural and anti-environmental" agricultural policy.