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Protests by European farmers intensified throughout the region, especially in Spain and Greece, where dozens of roads were closed, the transport of essential goods was prevented and road chaos was caused in the main cities. A group of hundreds of tractors managed to overcome the police cordon in Barcelona and enter the heart of the Catalan capital, where they explained their demands to the regional president, the nationalist Pere Aragonés. From Brussels, the European Commission (EC) insisted on “not simplifying the field debate”, as it is a very complex and diverse reality, in which many realities coexist.
European farmers are still on the warpath, fed up with the situation of their sector, suffocated by the low prices of their inputs, the fight against European bureaucracy to access aid and plans from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds and of the increasingly severe measures related to the environment and the so-called Agenda 2030, which aims to gradually reduce the use of fossil fuels, which fully affects this activity. In addition to what they call “unfair competition” against imports from other regions, such as Africa and Latin America, where according to them industrial products prohibited in the EU are used and that they themselves cannot use.
In Spain, tens of thousands of farmers mobilized throughout the country: they blocked roads in Catalonia. Andalusia, the Basque Country, Galicia, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia, Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Cantabria and Asturias, above all, with the paralysis or temporary blocking of numerous regional roads and main highways. In addition, the protest also focused its offensive on the attempt to block the main food markets of the city, as they did in Valladolid and Malaga.
One of the most massive protests was the one that took place in Catalonia, where farmers from the four provinces organized to try to reach Barcelona with their tractors, where the regional government headquarters are located. This is what they finally did throughout the afternoon, when the tractors entered the city with the support of a good part of the citizens, who understand the difficult situation that the countryside has been experiencing for decades, with precarious work and increasingly low profits. increasingly scarce, in addition to the lack of personnel to guarantee the subsistence of the activity. Upon entering the Catalan capital, a group of 16 people met with the regional president, Aragonés, to whom they asked for concrete solutions for the agricultural sector.
These protests, at least in Spain, are taking place outside the main agricultural professional organizations and unions, including Asaja, COAG, UPA and Unión de Uniones, which will join the protests in the coming days.
Another focus of the protests that has intensified is in Greece, where farmers continue their mobilizations for the third week with blockades of the country’s main highways, for example, a group of people on the outskirts of Thessaloniki (north), the second city largest in Greece, they blocked the highway that connects this city with the capital, Athens, for a few hours, while a few hours later this road was again blocked by farmers from central Greece. In addition, several highways that connect Thessaloniki with several cities in the north of the country were blocked for several hours during midday. While a large group of farmers from western Greece arrived with their tractors at the port of Igoumenitsa, the third largest in the country, which they aspire to block in the next days of fighting.
Faced with this situation, and after the EC itself decided to reverse its plan to eliminate the use of pesticides by 50 percent, the executive vice president of the EC for the European Green Deal, Maros Sefcovic, called on the “sanity” to “not simplify the debate”: “There are many reasons that have brought farmers to the streets in recent weeks and it is important not to oversimplify the situation because the problems of the agri-food sector are complex. There are people in the agri-food sector for whom the system works well and others who are left behind. In addition, there are those who support, apply and promote sustainable policies from an environmental point of view and those who need our help to be more sustainable. There are also those who benefit from open trade and those who are being suffocated by it. And we have to guarantee that the agri-food sector remains competitive, but with decent incomes for all farmers and SMEs throughout the chain.”
In Spain, the consumer association FACUA asked the Spanish government, led by socialist Pedro Sánchez, for double labeling of farm products that offers information to consumers about the price at origin along with that for sale to the public. “Farmers have been denouncing the absence of sufficient inspections to detect illegal practices of imposing sales at a loss, in addition to the ridiculous amount of the few sanctions that are imposed,” the association explained.
Furthermore, several environmental non-governmental organizations, such as Greenpeace and SEO/BirdLife, called not to back down on environmental policies. From SEO/BirdLife they showed solidarity with the “discontent of farmers and most of their demands, including fair remuneration for agricultural products”, although they clarified that “biodiversity is an ally of profitability. Biodiversity and ecosystem services are not the problem, but rather part of the solution, through natural pest control, improving soil fertility, stopping erosion or reducing vulnerability to droughts.”
While Greenpeace described as a “poisoned gift” to farmers that it has announced that it will withdraw the proposed regulation to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50 percent by 2030, since in its opinion it is an “inadmissible and clearly harmful” decision. of supposed support for the agricultural sector consists paradoxically of poisoning the countryside. “These types of advertisements contribute to the discredit of our agriculture instead of protecting it.”
By Armando G. Tejeda
Source: La Jornada
