Tractors on TikTok: Europe’s farmers send a loud pre-election message
Al Jazeera
Five months before the European Parliament elections, angry European Union farmers are honking to be heard.
Afumati, Romania – Amid a noisy line of vehicles obstructing the ring road of Bucharest, a farmer emerged holding a lamb with the flag of Romania around its neck.
“We became Europe’s slaves”, said Ghiocel, 47, his cheeks rosy from the freezing late January temperatures, as he stroked the young animal. “That is no longer possible!”
Beside him, a man waved a flag while the few dozen tractors and trucks disrupted traffic and honked incessantly.
“We have all that expensive diesel, gas, insurance … We, in our country, have everything and we end up working elsewhere,” Ghiocel said, referring to the migration of five million Romanians in the past three decades.
Walking among the crowd wearing a white woollen hat and a yellow visibility vest, Danut Andrus, an agricultural entrepreneur from Botosani, captured videos and uploaded them to his TikTok page with the hashtag #fermieri (“farmer” in Romanian). Some of his videos garnered more than 300,000 views.
