“There has been a disinformation campaign around Mercosur in rural areas,” have stated sources from the European Commission, pointing out that the origin of said disinformation may be in Russia.
The rejection and the demonstrations that farmers and ranchers protagonized a few weeks ago against the Mercosur Agreement seemed more numerous than those that have been able to be held on other occasions against also very controversial trade agreements, such as the case of Morocco (currently under review, by the way).
In fact, the slogan "No to Mercosur" has become the banner of certain agrarian movements (more provincial than national) and clearly of a political party, of VOX, which on occasion the Popular Party has also joined.
To combat it
For a long time, the European Commission has been aware that disinformation, hoaxes, and half-truths are a significant threat to democratic political systems because they destabilize them. In this regard, the president of the community executive, Ursula Von der Leyen asked her Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Christopfhe Hansen, at the beginning of her mandate that “I would like you to focus on combating the selective spread of disinformation in rural areas, as part of your work to address the specific challenges of these areas.”
In this sense, from the European Union, it is bet on traveling from Brussels to the territories to tell firsthand what is negotiated there and in this way try to stop the destabilization that the hoaxes generate.
“Rural areas are more vulnerable to disinformation,” a source from the European Commission has stated, although, on the other hand, new technologies have facilitated in recent decades that people from rural areas access information just like those from urban areas, (as long as there is sufficient connectivity).