Angry farmers in the streets of Barcelona, February 7, 2024 (AFP/Pau Barrena)
The movement of agricultural anger is hardening in Spain, where thousands of farmers blocked roads on Wednesday to protest against European policy and the precariousness of the sector, despite conciliatory messages from the government.
While anger has subsided in many European countries, long columns of tractors have taken over the country’s roads, particularly in Castile-la-Mancha (center), Andalusia (south) and Catalonia (north-east), according to the General Directorate of Traffic.
This new day of demonstration aroused tensions with the police for the first time, particularly in Granada (south). A total of twelve people were arrested in the country, according to the Interior Ministry.
Epicenter of the demonstrations, Spain’s second city, Barcelona, saw nearly a thousand tractors converge during the day, coming to demonstrate in a concert of horns in front of the headquarters of the Catalan regional government.
“The bureaucracy is suffocating us,” one of these demonstrators, Joan Maia Sala, told AFPTV. Because of it, “we have to think more about the documents and procedures required by the administration than about the work in the field”, regretted this 45-year-old farmer.
Angry farmers in the streets of Barcelona, February 7, 2024 (AFP/Pau Barrena)
At the end of a meeting on Wednesday evening with the president of the Catalan region, Pere Aragones, some farmers assured that they intended to sleep there, saying they were determined to continue the demonstrations.
– 80,000 trucks affected –
These gatherings, called on social networks, led to major traffic jams, particularly on the Franco-Spanish border. In the morning, the French authorities took compulsory parking measures for heavy goods vehicles.
In Malaga (Andalusia), access to the port was briefly blocked for the second day in a row, according to the town hall. Access to the port of Castellon, in the Valencia region (east), was also hampered, before the police dispersed the demonstrators.
Angry farmers in the streets of Barcelona, February 7, 2024 (AFP/Pau Barrena)
In a press release, the Spanish Confederation of Goods Transport (CETM) called for “measures to avoid” the sector being “hostage to the demonstrations”. “We understand” the farmers, but the “victims” of the movement are “the companies”, he insisted.
A message relayed by Fenadismer, another federation of transporters, which estimated the number of trucks affected by the blockages at 80,000, and the financial impact of the movement at 120 million euros.
– “Hand held out” –
Although they were not behind the rallies, the three main agricultural unions (Asaja, Coag and UPA) said they shared the concerns expressed by the demonstrators, and called for more demonstrations in the coming days .
Spanish farmers, like their European colleagues, denounce a European policy that is too complex, standards that are too restrictive, prices that are too low and competition deemed unfair from foreign products imported into the EU.
“These are problems that we have raised” for a long time “without obtaining appropriate answers,” said Marcos Alarcón, secretary general of the UPA, on public radio on Wednesday, who called for “unity” in the face of calls to demonstrate in dispersed order.
Angry farmers block the highway in Mollerussa near Lerida west of Barcelona, February 6, 2024 (AFP/Josep LAGO)
Questioned in Parliament on Wednesday, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez assured that he was “on the side of farmers” and highlighted the efforts already made to support the sector, particularly in the face of the drought facing the country.
The head of government also pledged to improve the 2021 law on the food value chain to prevent Spanish farmers from selling their products at a loss, and to simplify the implementation of the common agricultural policy (CAP). .
During a meeting with journalists Wednesday evening, the Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas recognized that the situation was “complex”, while repeating that he was in a logic of “dialogue” and an “outstretched hand” towards the demonstrators.
Spain, often referred to as the “vegetable garden of Europe”, is the leading European exporter of fruits and vegetables. Many farms are nevertheless in difficulty due in particular to the drought which has been raging in the country for three years.
© 2024 AFP
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