Farmers’ protests block traffic across Spain, 1,000 tractors head toward Barcelona

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Farmers in Spain continued nationwide protests on Wednesday, blocking key roads and food distribution centers while winning more concessions from the government.

In parliament, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that Madrid will reinforce the “food chain law” to ensure farmers are not forced to sell food below production costs.

He also announced that Spain would implement “mirror” clauses in imports to guarantee that produce entering the market complies with EU standards.

“What banned products do imported oranges contain? What labor rights are in those countries? What type of fuel do they use? Consumers don’t know but it should be clear,” protesting Catalan rice farmer Dani Forcadell told El Pais.

“This production isn’t coming from small farmers, it’s international companies that exploit the people and their land to exploit the market here.”

Sanchez said he would lobby for the simplification of the bureaucracy of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which is another major gripe of the protesters.

But some of the biggest problems are also at a more local level.

In Catalonia, for instance, where around 1,000 tractors are driving toward central Barcelona, threatening to block the major access points, some farmers are outraged by water restrictions due to the drought.

In a statement, a farmers’ union from the Baix Llobregat county said the regional government’s drought measures are “temporary band-aids that do not solve the problem in the mid to longterm.” They are calling for immediate investments in different water resources, modernization and slam the “fraudulent abuse” of hydro resources by state-backed power companies.

Most of the disruptive protests have been organized outside of the three main farmers’ unions, which have also called for mobilizations.

In Catalonia, the lines of tractors have not been authorized, but daily La Vanguardia reported that they plan to leave the tractors blocking the main entrances of Barcelona this afternoon while farmers march to meet government officials.

A meeting is scheduled with Catalan President Pere Aragones on Wednesday afternoon.

“We might just stay here because they never solve anything, they never have,” Joan Carles, a spokesperson for a Valles farmers union told El Pais. “They pat us on the back so we’ll go home. But we won’t move until they improve the situation and guarantee help for the sector, which is dying.”

Elsewhere in Spain, around 400 tractors blocked the highway in La Rioja; anti-riot police intervened in a protest in Leon; and in Malaga the government announced it would be fining around 400 protesters for non-sanctioned protests.