BRUSSELS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 3, 2025--
A series of Magritte-inspired Surrealist artwork appeared outside the European Parliament – confronting policymakers with a visual warning about the future of farming in Europe, and a call to align the EU’s €386 billion farm subsidy system with the Green Deal. WeMove Europe, the independent campaign group made up of more than 750,000 people across Europe behind the stunt, have called for urgent CAP reform — demanding fairer subsidies, stronger market regulation, and greater support for sustainable, small-and medium-sized farms.
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The action is backed by a coalition of farmer groups, environmental organisations and over 100,000 citizens across Europe. They argue the current subsidy system rewards intensive agriculture at the expense of small and sustainable farms. More than five million farms have disappeared across the EU since 2005, while 80% of CAP funds go to just 20% of recipients. Polling released earlier this year shows up to 70% of farmers in Spain, Italy and Poland feel forgotten by policymakers — despite most expressing pride in their work and support for environmental action.
Morgan Ody,a vegetable producer from Bretagne, France, and member of European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), says: “Alongside ensuring fair prices, a strong CAP budget is essential to tackle the challenges farmers face today. But that public money must be used to keep rural areas alive by regulating markets and supporting the transition to agroecology and more sustainable food systems – not to fuel the industrialisation of farming or line shareholders’ pockets.”
Styled in homage to Magritte’s famous ‘Treachery of Images’, the artworks unveiled carry captions such as “Ceci n’est pas une pomme” and “Ceci n’est pas une ferme”. Their message: Europe’s farm policy no longer feeds people — it feeds corporate consolidation. The full collection is viewable at www.notfarming.com. The aim is to challenge outdated “postcard” perceptions of farming — and spark honest discussion among policymakers about who the current system really serves.
In many European areas, one in three farms has ceased operations, while subsidised overproduction drives prices so low that some farmers earn less than it costs them to produce. In France and Spain, for example, milk is often sold below production cost — a market failure propped up by the CAP.
Giulio Carini, communications manager at WeMove Europe says: “Our farming system is rigged. Small farmers are being pushed off the land while agribusiness giants cash in on public money. Discussions about the future of the CAP need to address what we are paying for, not just how much money is allocated to it. We need to support farmers and reward them for protecting our nature and climate, on which they rely. We’re calling on people across Europe to stand up for fair prices, healthy food, and a future where small sustainable farmers and nature can thrive. This is our moment to demand our EU leaders fix this broken system.”
In full, the coalition is calling for:
These reforms are essential not only for securing farmers’ futures, but also for delivering on the EU Green Deal — ensuring that Europe’s food system supports climate, nature and communities alike.
People across Europe can urge the EU to act by signing the petition at www.notfarming.com
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: Sinister Portrayal Of Industrial Agriculture appears outside European Parliament as WeMove Europe calls for reforms to EU Farming policies in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Getty Images for WeMove Europe)
MADRID (AP) — Venezuelans living in Spain are watching the events unfold back home with a mix of awe, joy and fear.
Some 600,000 Venezuelans live in Spain, home to the largest population anywhere outside the Americas. Many fled political persecution and violence but also the country’s collapsing economy.
A majority live in the capital, Madrid, working in hospitals, restaurants, cafes, nursing homes and elsewhere. While some Venezuelan migrants have established deep roots and lives in the Iberian nation, others have just arrived.
Here is what three of them had to say about the future of Venezuela since U.S. forces deposed Nicolás Maduro.
David Vallenilla woke up to text messages from a cousin on Jan. 3 informing him “that they invaded Venezuela.” The 65-year-old from Caracas lives alone in a tidy apartment in the south of Madrid with two Daschunds and a handful of birds. He was in disbelief.
“In that moment, I wanted certainty,” Vallenilla said, “certainty about what they were telling me.”
In June 2017, Vallenilla’s son, a 22-year-old nursing student in Caracas named David José, was shot point-blank by a Venezuelan soldier after taking part in a protest near a military air base in the capital. He later died from his injuries. Video footage of the incident was widely publicized, turning his son’s death into an emblematic case of the Maduro government’s repression against protesters that year.
After demanding answers for his son’s death, Vallenilla, too, started receiving threats and decided two years later to move to Spain with the help of a nongovernmental organization.
On the day of Maduro’s capture, Vallenilla said his phone was flooded with messages about his son.
“Many told me, ‘Now David will be resting in peace. David must be happy in heaven,’” he said. “But don't think it was easy: I spent the whole day crying.”
Vallenilla is watching the events in Venezuela unfold with skepticism but also hope. He fears more violence, but says he has hope the Trump administration can effect the change that Venezuelans like his son tried to obtain through elections, popular protests and international institutions.
“Nothing will bring back my son. But the fact that some justice has begun to be served for those responsible helps me see a light at the end of the tunnel. Besides, I also hope for a free Venezuela.”
Journalist Carleth Morales first came to Madrid a quarter-century ago when Hugo Chávez was reelected as Venezuela's president in 2000 under a new constitution.
The 54-year-old wanted to study and return home, taking a break of sorts in Madrid as she sensed a political and economic environment that was growing more and more challenging.
“I left with the intention of getting more qualified, of studying, and of returning because I understood that the country was going through a process of adaptation between what we had known before and, well, Chávez and his new policies," Morales said. "But I had no idea that we were going to reach the point we did.”
In 2015, Morales founded an organization of Venezuelan journalists in Spain, which today has hundreds of members.
The morning U.S. forces captured Maduro, Morales said she woke up to a barrage of missed calls from friends and family in Venezuela.
“Of course, we hope to recover a democratic country, a free country, a country where human rights are respected,” Morales said. “But it’s difficult to think that as a Venezuelan when we’ve lived through so many things and suffered so much.”
Morales sees it as unlikely that she would return home, having spent more than two decades in Spain, but she said she hopes her daughters can one day view Venezuela as a viable option.
“I once heard a colleague say, ‘I work for Venezuela so that my children will see it as a life opportunity.’ And I adopted that phrase as my own. So perhaps in a few years it won’t be me who enjoys a democratic Venezuela, but my daughters.”
For two weeks, Verónica Noya has waited for her phone to ring with the news that her husband and brother have been freed.
Noya’s husband, Venezuelan army Capt. Antonio Sequea, was imprisoned in 2020 after having taken part in a military incursion to oust Maduro. She said he remains in solitary confinement in the El Rodeo prison in Caracas. For 20 months, Noya has been unable to communicate with him or her brother, who was also arrested for taking part in the same plot.
“That’s when my nightmare began,” Noya said.
Venezuelan authorities have said hundreds of political prisoners have been released since Maduro's capture, while rights groups have said the real number is a fraction of that. Noya has waited in agony to hear anything about her four relatives, including her husband's mother, who remain imprisoned.
Meanwhile, she has struggled with what to tell her children when they ask about their father's whereabouts. They left Venezuela scrambling and decided to come to Spain because family roots in the country meant that Noya already had a Spanish passport.
Still, she hopes to return to her country.
“I’m Venezuelan above all else,” Noya said. “And I dream of seeing a newly democratic country."
Venezuelan journalist Caleth Morales works in her apartment's kitchen in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
David Vallenilla, father of the late David José Vallenilla Luis, sits in his apartment's kitchen in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Veronica Noya holds a picture of her husband Antonio Sequea in Madrid, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
David Vallenilla holds a picture of deposed President Nicolas Maduro, blindfolded and handcuffed, during an interview with The Associated Press at his home in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Pictures of the late David José Vallenilla Luis are placed in the living room of his father, David José Vallenilla, in Madrid, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
