Farmers, ranchers, irrigators and hunters come together in a “historic” event in which more than 200,000 people are expected
To end a week marked by social outrage at the rise in fuel and energy prices, this Sunday around 200,000 people demonstrate in the center of Madrid -according to calculations by the convening organizations- to demand the defense of the rural world .
The march had been planned for months, but the increases in the prices of raw materials, fuel and energy that have been experienced since the beginning of the year have only aggravated the situation of thousands of families in the agricultural and livestock sector. That is why this demonstration is expected to be a “historic” and massive event, with more than 1,500 buses arriving in Madrid from all over Spain.
The protesters will travel from 11 in the morning the little more than 4 kilometers that separate the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V, in front of the Ministry of Agriculture in Atocha, to the Fuente de San Juan de la Cruz, at the gates of the Ministry of Ecological Transition , the “responsible for many problems that affect the field,” say the organizers.
“It is time to unite our voices against ineffective policies that are turning their backs on those who work every day to fill the refrigerators of all Spaniards and to take care of an environment that we all need and that we all enjoy,” they say. from the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA).
It is the first time that nine different associations with diverse interests come together to claim their rights. These are Asaja, COAG, UPA, the National Hunting Office, the Rural Alliance, the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation, the Spanish Irrigation Federation, the Union of Fighting Bull Breeders and Agro-food Cooperatives.
The 20M Rural has emphasized the apolitical nature of the demonstration because they want the only protagonists to be farmers, ranchers and the rural world as a whole. In its
joint manifestdemand a shock plan from the Government due to the rise in energy prices, a fair Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) or the application of the Food Chain Law, which although it was reformed so as not to be able to sell at a loss, they denounce that it is not fulfilling.
From the Government they defend their policies and assure that many of these demands are already being fulfilled. In an interview with this newspaper, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, assured that the underlying feeling of the mobilization is that “the rural world wants to be heard since they were essential in the hardest moments of the pandemic” . In addition, he announced that his cabinet hopes that Europe grants “a good endowment” of funds to mitigate the “difficulties” that the field is going through.
#countryside #takes #streets #Madrid #demand #respect #rural #world