Argentina-Farm groups meet with opposition.
ARGENTINA-FARM LEADERS AND THE GOVERNMENT.
The four members of the farming sector Liaison Committee and the leaders of the Union-Pro electoral front formed by City of Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri and dissident Peronist deputies Francisco De Narváez and Felipe Solá met to analyze farming issues and demand that the government put aside its confrontation with the sector. Farming leaders meanwhile demanded a meeting with Peronist Party chairman, and former president, Néstor Kirchner.
At the meeting, the farming representatives once again brought up the main complaints raised with followers and political leaders during a rally held in Leones, Córdoba Province, on 12 March during celebrations marking the birth of their four member grouping. Traditionally, the four groups had been at odds with one another.
At their meeting at Confederaciones Rurales Argentinas (CRA) headquarters yesterday, the four farming leaders stressed the need to assert and draw attention on "each and every one of the explicit demands" they had made from Lugones, Rural Society (SRA) official Daniel Pellegrina told the DyN news agency.
Meanwhile Argentine Rural Society (SRA) head Hugo Biolcati highlighted the "sizeable support" by leaders of the Unión-Pro front who vowed to "further the actions launched by the farming leaders in parliamentary circles and focusing on export duties."
Biolcati also said the Liaison Committee had been holding meetings with all the political parties. In his view, "the ruling party could take part but so far it has failed to do so."
Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA) head Eduardo Buzzi made a public appeal to Peronist Party chairman and former President Néstor Kirchner to "consider the possibility of discussing" farming policy with the Liaison Committee.
De Narváez, for his part, stressed his support for farmers’ demands and said Argentina’s farmlands are "its business cards around the world because of their competitiveness, quality and efficiency and also because they produce what the world is looking forward to buying — foodstuffs."
Solá stressed that farmers needed enhanced representation in Congress and drew attention to the opportunities presented by the ongoing formation of electoral tickets.
The former governor of Buenos Aires Province also pointed at "the need to develop structural policies for the farming sector" and to make sure that "farmers’ demands are duly addressed by the political leadership at national level."
The head of Confederaciones Rurales Argentinas, Marío Llambías, warned about "the grave situation farmers are going through". Llamabías lamented that "no further meetings with government technical bodies have been held" in the search for solutions to the farming crisis.
After the meeting, Llambías said he was concerned for the crisis and expected "urgent changes" based on the demands made by farmers at Leones. Priorities, he said, must center around the optimization of regional production and development, a move which could stop rural migration by those searching for a job and a keep.
The four farming leaders agreed that the three election candidates "shared the view that the demands set forth by the farming sector in its León statement were legitimate." Also, he said "the points included in that statement and the dissident peronists’ political platform are in symmetry."
The meeting lasted more than two hours. It analyzed the contents of the León statement which called for the consolidation of democratic principles, State commitment to fostering production and the safeguarding of the regional as well as local lifestyles in inland Argentina.
