FTD-Serie: Serie Business English

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Business English: Sardinia's farmers fend off the sharks

Angry smallholders are being forced to sell land at auction in order to repay cheap loans. von Guy Dinmore (Italy)

Sharks are circling Sardinia. Tourists need not worry however - it is bankrupt farmers who are having to fight off speculative predators grabbing land at forced auctions. Criticism of the European Union is rare in Italy but, on this Mediterranean island, farmers are cursing Brussels, their regional government and Rome for the mess they feel they were duped into with offers of cheap loans 20 years ago. "Our natural calamity comes not from God or the land but those politicians in Brussels," said Gino Mazo at a packed meeting in the town of Decimoputzu, the epicentre of a farmers' revolt. One after another, smallholders related how their lives were being ruined. Working on the fringes, activists of the small Sardinian independence movement handed out leaflets pledging non-violent action to stop the court-ordered auctions. The crisis reflects tensions between Sardinia's relatively autonomous regional authority, the central government and Brussels. Renato Soru, the region's governor, founded Tiscali, the communications company, in the capital Cagliari. The wealthy businessman sees a future in education, technology, science parks and tourism. But globalisation is a dirty word among farmers, who contribute a small part of Sardinia's economy but the core of its culture. They may be gruff - and some have squandered their loans - but they are politically attuned. The farmers expect a deathblow in 2010, when a Mediterranean free trade zone between the EU and North Africa is scheduled to come into force. "Europe will be a continent of consumers, fed by outsiders, by exploited workers in Egypt paid $2 a day, in joint ventures. This is the destiny prepared for you," said one activist. "Enough." The saga began in 1988 when the regional government passed Law 44, offering cheap loans to poor farmers and hoping to reverse postwar emigration. Gianfranco Sabiucciu, mayor of Decimoputzu, says more than 5,000 loans were taken. Only banks know the total owed now, but Mr Sabiucciu reckons it is over Euro200m. Alas, the region had failed to consult Brussels, which in 1992 started taking action against what were in effect unlawful subsidies. In 1997 farmers were ordered to pay them back with interest at prevailing rates. Events came to a head recently when courts started ordering auctions of land used as collateral. "Fifteen years of agony," said Mr Sabiucciu, a rightwinger who finds himself in an unlikely alliance with the left. The farmers are also supported by Beppe Grillo, a famous and politically explosive comic. "What has the world come to when a comic has to defend the interests of farmers?" said Mr Grillo. The agriculture ministry late last year said it had found a solution. The regional government, with a private agency, would buy the debt from the banks and reschedule it for farmers. Auctions were said to have been cancelled. As the drama goes on, so does the debate over whether Mr Soru's "new deal" can carve out a future in the wider world for Sardinia's 1.5m people. Alberto Scanu, president of Confindustria, the employers' association, laments the endless red tape that deters investors. "We are in the middle of the maritime motorway, but the danger is that everyone will pass us by," he jokes. He might have been quoting D.H. Lawrence, who wrote of Sardinia in 1921: "Lost between Europe and Africa and belonging nowhere."

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