Empty shelves and too-expensive fuel stocks are the last drop in a sea of negligence faced by southern Italians every day. Life at Europe's edges has left many feeling failed by their government, while EU policies could be making things worse.
As protests ripple through big cities across the continent, a quieter, more forgotten population at Europes edge sits through weeks of strikes and blockades, while largely ignored.
Italys southern regions of Puglia, Calabria, Sicily, Molise and Basilicata are facing empty supermarket shelves and plummeting fuel supplies since transport and agriculture workers have been protesting against climbing costs of living.
Entire sectors have been put on pause due to the excessive costs it now takes to run them, from delivering food goods to producing them, for unbalanced competition with foreign suppliers and sustained neglect from Rome.
While protestors in large cities like Milan and Bologna joined a European choir of protests fighting unaffordable housing last weekend, truck drivers from Bari to Palermo have joined in blocking roads to important ports and highways connecting isolated southern regions, and denouncing the outrageous costs of fertilisers, seeds, and fuel for tractors and transport for over two weeks.
For us, and for the community, its become impossible to face the costs of fuel, Luigi Di Benedetto, manager of an agriculture company in Caltagirone, Sicily, told EUobserver.
Italy import products that do not meet legal specifications, he said, echoing the worries of his colleagues and fellow protestors, since the market was flooded with cheaper foreign imports, which have left them unable to pay the bills.
This article continues, but the full version is available only to EUobserver.com subscribers. Visit account.euobserver.com/membership
Fonte: euobserver.com