In a concert of horns and bells, dozens of tractors reached the Ministry of Agriculture in the center of Madrid at midday, in front of which several thousand farmers paraded with signs indicating in particular "the countryside is in the abyss and the government doesn't care.
The head of the demonstration of #26F #PorlaAgriculturaFamiliar was taken to the European Union office in Paseo de la Castellana, in Madrid.
@UPA_Federal #UPAAndalucíaMásNecesariaQueNunca pic.twitter.com/13IC0rkOta
— UPA ANDALUCÍA (@UPAANDALUCIA) February 26, 2024
This new mobilization at the call of the three main Spanish farmers (Asaja, COAG and UPA), after that of Wednesday when 500 tractors entered Madrid, comes while the Ministers of Agriculture of the Twenty-Seven are meeting in Brussels and that hundreds of tractors paralyze the European capital.
“We will go to the end but the strength is dwindling” because these demonstrations represent economic “losses”, the farmers having to leave their farms, declared Maria Villoslada Garcia, a 43-year-old wine grower from the region of La Rioja (north). ).
“We are waiting for solutions, but quick ones” from the EU and Spain “because we are asphyxiated” and “our work costs us more than it brings in,” she added.
The future of the camp is written with the hands of our young people.
#UnidadDeAcción #26Feb #Asaja @La_COAG @UPA_Federal
📸📹 https://t.co/dupwMQarSc pic.twitter.com/0MZNDyAdvM
— Asaja Nacional (@AsajaNacional) February 26, 2024
Like her, Spanish farmers have been demonstrating almost continuously since February 1, notably by blocking roads.
“There are fewer and fewer young people in the profession and that is the consequence of all this, of the costs,” denounced Victor Iglesias, a 24-year-old cereal farmer in the province of Salamanca (center).
Like their European colleagues, Spanish farmers are protesting against competition that they consider unfair from countries outside the EU which are therefore not subject to the same rules, and against bureaucracy and standards that they consider it too heavy.
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.
Spanish farmers have been received on several occasions since the start of their movement by the Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas, who has pledged in particular to defend in Brussels a simplification of the CAP and to improve the Spanish law on the food chain to prevent farmers from selling their products at a loss.