The mobilization of farmers, live | A thousand tractors arrive in Barcelona while protests cause traffic jams in 10 communities | Economy

2024-02-07 13:41:34

Farmers maintain protests in several provinces of Spain while the Government promises improvements for the countryside

The farmers’ protests are continuing this Wednesday and keep large traffic routes closed, while in Congress, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has committed to strengthening the food chain law and implementing reciprocity for imports. Since early in the morning, the General Directorate of Traffic has reported important outages that cause delays on roads and high-capacity roads in up to seven autonomous communities: Catalonia, Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Aragon, Murcia and Extremadura. .

Sánchez has promised in the Lower House to strengthen the food chain law, which prohibits sales at a loss, in response to the efforts that agricultural organizations are carrying out these days in Spain due to the situation in the countryside. The President of the Executive has also said that he will implement “mirror” clauses in food imports and that he will seek a simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to facilitate adaptation to European regulations.

One of the largest demonstrations this Wednesday is the tractor unit that has left various points in Catalonia and is heading towards Barcelona. It already has around a thousand tractors and will be received at around 4:00 p.m. by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, at the Palau de la Generalitat.

Farmers, most of them convened by groups through social networks, ask that the requirements of European environmental policies be relaxed and that trade agreements with third countries be reformed so that they are required to have the same production conditions as those of farmers. community producers, that is, the so-called mirror clauses are applied.

By acting independently and without the umbrella of some of the agricultural professional organizations, the evolution of the protests is unpredictable, although the forecast is that they will continue in the coming days, when they will also be joined by those called by Asaja, COAG, UPA and Union of Unions.