Farmers have cut off dozens of roads in Spain, including access to ports

This Wednesday, dozens of roads were closed in Spain, including access to the French border, Mediterranean ports and cities such as Seville, due to demonstrations called by the country’s three largest agricultural confederations.

This Wednesday marks the ninth day in a row that Spain has seen protests against European agricultural policies and regulations, similar to what has happened in other countries.

The three main farmer confederations (Asaha – Young Farmers Agricultural Association, UPA – Union of Small Farmers and Livestock Growers and the coordinator of COAG – Organizations of Farmers and Livestock Growers) called for demonstrations this Wednesday in 13 provinces of Spain, one of the days when new protests were announced .

In Catalonia, northeastern Spain, farmers have blocked the two main roads connecting them to France (the motorway and the national road) as well as access to the port of Tarragona since Tuesday.

In Andalusia, in the south of the country, access to the center of Seville and main access to the port of Motril were blocked, among other blockades and demonstrations.

According to traffic authorities, the regions of Castilla-La Mancha (including links to Madrid), Extremadura, Castile and Leon or Aragon are also experiencing road and highway closures or congestion due to idling tractors.

In cities such as Burgos (Castile and Leon) and Guadalajara (Castile and Leon), tractors took to the streets of the city center in protest.

One of the goals of this Wednesday’s demonstrations was to block the Madrid supply market (Mercamadrid), the largest in Spain, but the protest was not authorized in the manner and location requested and ultimately did not take place as planned, according to the confederations. agricultural. In this place, where only a dozen farmers on foot had gathered, no disturbances were recorded.

Spain’s farmer associations have organized dozens of protests across the country until the end of February, according to a calendar of demonstrations updated on Monday.

In addition to the confederations, the Union of Trade Unions (UDU) has announced its own calendar of protests, focusing on a “tractada” (demonstration with tractors) on February 21 in Madrid in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Last week’s demonstrations were also announced online through unofficial platforms outside of agricultural associations.

Since the protests began on February 6, security forces have detained 34 people and identified more than 8,600.

Agriculture Minister Luis Planas has convened agricultural confederations for a meeting scheduled for Thursday.

Luis Planas already met on February 2 with three organizations that, after the meeting, decided to continue the protests.

On that day, the minister guaranteed that the Madrid government would only support changes to the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy that were “in line” with the interests of Spanish farmers.

Luis Planas also believes that Brussels, with recent statements about its response to farmer protests in several countries, is “coming too late”, and acknowledged the “consistent accumulation” of rules and bureaucracy of CAP and other European standards and defended simplification.

Luis Planas vowed to continue to listen to the sector and the EU’s trade agreements with other countries and regions of the world, another target of the farmers’ protests, and promised “strict control” over import quotas.

The Spanish government protects so-called “mirror clauses” for imports from countries outside the EU, meaning that imported products are subject to the same rules and requirements that apply to production within the European space.

European farmers, including in Portugal, have taken to the streets in recent weeks to demand flexibility in the CAP and more support for the sector.