This Thursday (1st), Portuguese farmers block some roads in the country near the border with Spain, such as the A-25 or the A-6, to protest against the cuts foreseen in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) .
The road with the greatest influx of protesters is the A-25, on the stretch that goes to the Portuguese-Spanish border of Vilar Formoso and Fuentes de Oñoro, where around 400 tractors occupy the last 12 kilometers of the road in both directions of traffic.
This is the border point with the highest heavy vehicle traffic and all trucks passing through the area are being diverted to secondary national roads. A similar situation occurs in Elvas, near the Spanish province of Badajoz, where Portuguese farmers cut the A-6.
There are also roadblocks in the Bragança area (north of the country) and in Beja (south), according to farmers, who have not announced how long this Thursday's protests will last.
“We want there to be respect for the farmer and our activity. This is a peaceful demonstration for the government to take measures in favor of the farmer”, Paulo Tomé, one of the protesters present at the A-25 closure, told EFE.
Nuno Janeiro, a farmer from the Portuguese village of Almofala, said from his tractor, also on the A-25, that the objective of the action is to recover their rights in the face of the loss of 35% of the aid they receive from the PAC.
“The policies are not in line with the needs of farmers”, António Norberto, from the municipality of Escalão, told EFE, explaining that they cannot compete with large warehouses.
“We can't continue like this, they are suffocating us, diesel is on the rise and, if agriculture stops, no one will eat”, added another livestock farmer, João, from Idanha-a-Nova.
Faced with protests from agricultural professionals across the country, the Portuguese government announced yesterday that it will make an allocation of 500 million euros (R$2.6 billion) available to mitigate the drought and compensate for cuts in the European Union's CAP.
In recent days there have been protests by farmers from different EU countries against the new CAP: starting in France, mobilizations have multiplied, passing through Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland, Romania and Greece.
In Spain, several agricultural organizations announced on Wednesday (31) a calendar of protests across the country to demand changes in EU policies, a shock plan from the Spanish government and actions by autonomous communities in the face of the crisis that has been plaguing the countryside. . (With EFE Agency)
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