The farmers have kept the flame of the protests lit this Thursday, with road closures in up to eight autonomous communities, arrests in Burgos and Almería, and even an attack on a civil guard in Zafra (Badajoz), slightly injured in the face after being hit by a stick thrown by the protesters. The concentrations, which have been joined by large organizations (Asaja, COAG and UPA), seek to sustain tension before the great march on Madrid scheduled for this Saturday, which they want to turn into a turning point in the demand for higher prices. fairer, less bureaucratic burden and greater control of the import of products from outside the European Union free of the requirements to which community farmers are subject.
The calls to press ahead in these days of transition until Saturday came even from the institutions. Ángel Samper, Minister of Agriculture of the Government of Aragon, led by the Popular Party and Vox, conveyed to the protesters who emerged from social networks and chats the message not to let up now that their demands have been placed in the political and media spotlight. “I have told them that there must be organization, that we must act with conviction, maintain the mobilizations and the level of tension and that they are not a flash in the pan,” he revealed.
On a day in which the professional agricultural associations Asaja, COAG and UPA called for protests in Ciudad Real, Huesca, Salamanca and Ávila, thus taking the baton of the Telegram and WhatsApp chats where they spread animatedly on the 6F platform, there were power cuts. roads in Extremadura, Catalonia, Valencian Community, Andalusia, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón and Navarra. And in some cases they went beyond peaceful mobilization. In Logroño and Pamplona there were discussions and fights between protesters and police. Although the arrests occurred in Burgos, where two farmers were arrested for preventing the passage of other vehicles on a highway near the municipality of Rubena, and in El Ejido (Almería), where two men were accused of disobedience and public disorder for the cut of the A-7 highway, on which they threw plastic boxes which they set on fire to prevent the passage of vehicles. In total, 19 people have been arrested since the start of the agricultural protests on Tuesday until 12:00 this Thursday, February 8, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Another 2,725 have been identified by the security forces in case an administrative sanction is applicable to them. The subdelegate of the Government in Almería, José María Martín, reported that the authorities are working “to guarantee the free movement of people”, given that he believes that the right of farmers to demonstrate should not intercede with that of citizens and goods. to move.
In parallel to these scenes of tension, the political dialogue with those mobilized also continued. After Wednesday's failed meeting with the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and the counselor of Climate Action, David Mascort, a group of eight farmers from platform 6F in central Catalonia met this Thursday in the Parliament with all the groups except PP and Vox. In addition, they met with the president of the Chamber, Anna Erra. The result, according to Joan Rius, one of them, was satisfactory. “We are already very tired, but the two nights on the street were worth it. Not only have we been able to express our concerns and be heard, but we return with guarantees.”
Rius revealed that they signed an agreement to review the restrictions of the Generalitat's drought emergency plan, which reduces the water available for livestock by 50%, as well as the payment of outstanding aid from the last two years, and the reduction of the bureaucratic burden, one of the key issues due to the excess of procedures that they report having to combine with the already demanding agricultural work.
Cutting access to Madrid
These specific understandings are not going to interrupt the farmers' strategy of collapsing cities. The legal spokesperson for the 6F platform, Xaime da Pena, announced in a press conference that this Friday they will focus on Zaragoza. Da Pena has acknowledged that the tractor units have lost some steam, but he attributed this to the fact that the event in Madrid this Saturday is now the priority. “There are probably supply problems, because the main access roads to the capital are going to be cut,” he warned. And he blamed the “bureaucratic collapse” for the fact that the demonstrations have not received permits to take place.
The possibility that the tractors try to surround Ferraz, where the national headquarters of the PSOE is located, has unleashed reactions. The general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, stated that they will never call for demonstrations in front of the headquarters of any party or the residence of regional presidents, something that links more to ideological issues than to agrarian activism. In the same sense, the PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, believes that this type of calls are “far removed” from the interests of the countryside, and have political intentions.
Álvarez said he shared the demands of the field, and asked the European Commission to “be sensitive” to these requests, although he wanted to distance himself from those who charge against Brussels and blame it for the situation in the sector: he clarified that UGT is a pro-European union, and recalled that farmers not only benefit from subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy, but from the single market.
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