By IANS
Buenos Aires : Around 88 percent of Argentines consider that the conflict between the government and farming sector could threaten the country’s stability, according to a study, EFE news agency reported.
Seventy-two percent of those interviewed approved the call for a dialogue by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez between the farmers and the government.
Fernandez invited the farmers for a dialogue Thursday following a mass protests by the farmers that lasted for 15 days.
Some 56 percent of the sample described the conflict as “very worrying” for the country’s political stability. Thirty-two percent said it was “worrying”, according to a poll conducted by the consultancy firm D’Alessio Irol, published Saturday in the daily Clarin.
Sixty-nine percent of the sample said the cause of the conflict was “lack of dialogue on the part of the government”.
After the president’s conciliatory remarks, a large part of the interviewees expressed in favour of Fernandez’s initiative.
Fifty-two percent said it was necessary to “establish a truce” between the farm sector and the government to resolve the conflict.
The four major agricultural associations in the country went on strike March 13 after the government announced tax increase on grain exports the previous day.
The associations temporarily suspended the measure Friday after the president’s call for a dialogue, although protests and roadblocks were still seen on some of the highways Saturday.