Farmers light bonfires in protest in western Switzerland
Farmers in French-speaking Switzerland have lit protest bonfires in several places. On Saturday, they called for solidarity with demands from the agricultural sector, such as better pay.
Swiss farmers, mainly from western Switzerland, have been mobilising peacefully but resolutely for several weeks to draw attention to their demands. One of those demands is the right to fairer pay. Protest fires blazed on Saturday evening, particularly in the cantons of Vaud and Fribourg, to call attention to their demands.
+ Why are Swiss farmers protesting?
The call to mobilise in French-speaking Switzerland was launched by a young farmer from Vaud via a Facebook group.
On February 12, the Swiss Farmers’ Union and other organisations had already submitted a petition signed by 65,000 people to the federal government and various large retailers calling for greater recognition of the commitment of the agriculture sector. The petition calls on the Federal Council not to make savings at the expense of farmers.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.