Farmers block the A7 highway linking Spain to France, on February 27, 2024 in Pontos, near Figueras, Spain (AFP/LLUIS GENE)
Spanish farmers protesting against the difficulties of the sector have been cutting the highway linking Spain to France in the Catalonia region (northeast of Spain) since Tuesday morning.
At the call in particular of the Catalan union Unió de Pagesos, these farmers placed dozens of tractors on the AP7 motorway near Pontos, in the province of Girona, around forty kilometers from the border, thus cutting off traffic, AFP noted on site.
Other roads were cut by farmers in the region, such as the A2 motorway which connects Barcelona to Madrid, regional authorities said.
In order to avoid kilometers of traffic jams, the prefecture of Pyrénées-Orientales, a French department bordering Spain, decided to block traffic on Tuesday morning on the A9, which is a continuation of the AP7 on the French side.
“Heavy goods vehicles traveling in the North-South direction will be stored on the A9 motorway from Leucate,” she notably indicated in a press release.
Spanish farmers have been mobilized since February 1. On Monday, thousands of them demonstrated in the center of Madrid where they again entered by tractor.
Like their European colleagues, they are protesting against competition that they consider unfair from countries outside the EU, which are therefore not subject to the same rules, and against a bureaucracy and standards that they consider it too heavy.
Farmers block the A7 highway linking Spain to France, on February 27, 2024 in Pontos, near Figueras, Spain (AFP/LLUIS GENE)
They also denounce purchase prices for their production that are too low within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and a lack of aid for the sector.
On Tuesday, farmers mobilized in Catalonia unloaded fruits and vegetables produced in Morocco from certain trucks on the AP7 as a sign of protest against competition from this country.
“We spent the morning emptying these six trucks carrying products from Morocco,” Jordi Ginebreda, one of these farmers, told AFPTV.
Farmers block the A7 highway linking Spain to France, on February 27, 2024 in Pontos, near Figueras, Spain (AFP/LLUIS GENE)
Beyond the demands common to the entire sector in Spain and Europe, farmers in this region have been hit by a historic drought for more than three years and are complaining about water restrictions imposed by local authorities.
“They don’t let us irrigate even though we have water in the wells (…) The problem of drought is very important but we have crops that are dying and they don’t let us water them,” denounced Xavi Jofre, a duck breeder.
© 2024 AFP
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