The highway linking Spain to France in the region of Catalonia (north-eastern Spain) was cut on Tuesday due to a new mobilization of Spanish farmers against the difficulties in the sector.
Dozens of farmers were gathered with their tractors on the AP7 where traffic was therefore cut in both directions at Pontos, in the province of Girona, around forty kilometers from the border, regional authorities indicated.
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, "
in the North-South direction (...) at the large Boulou toll gate
.
“
Heavy goods vehicles traveling in the North-South direction will be stored on the A9 motorway from Leucate to Le Boulou, without the possibility of exiting the A9, all exits of which will be closed in the same direction,
” she added in a press release.
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Unfair competition
Other roads were cut by farmers on the Spanish side, such as the A2 motorway which connects Barcelona to Madrid.
This mobilization, called in particular by the Catalan union Unió de Pagesos, intends to denounce, among other things, competition deemed “
unfair from imports
” coming from countries not members of the European Union and bureaucracy and standards that farmers consider too burdensome.
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.