Protesting Spanish farmers try to storm regional parliament in Pamplona

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Dozens of protesting Spanish farmers tried to storm the regional parliament in Pamplona on Thursday.

Police managed to stop the crowd trying to get in as the regional government of Navarra passed the 2024 budget.

"This episode is inadmissible, regrettable and condemnable from a democratic point of view,” Navarran President Unai Hualde told reporters. “This was like the [Jan. 6] assault on the United States Capitol.”

The regional interior minister, Amparo Lopez, also vowed to investigate the images of the protestors, who could face criminal charges. “We would be in a much worse situation if the police hadn’t stopped this. These are very serious acts, and, it’s actually the first time anything like it has happened,” she said.

“We are here to try to talk to the politicians, and they didn’t want to listen to us,” Javier Rodriguez from the 6F protest movement told journalists after the incident. “We want to ask for respect for the sector, and we don’t feel like we are being heard or are participating in the creation of laws or reforms.”

This was not the only disruptive farmers’ protest in Spain on Thursday, as mobilizations have been ongoing for around a month straight.

Farmers protesting with hundreds of tractors cut traffic on the AP-8 highway by Irun, on the Spanish side of the French border. Those protests, organized on social networks, cut traffic and formed mile-long traffic jams.

Government officials on Tuesday said nine police officers were injured in clashes with farmers near the city of Zamora, with several protesters arrested.

While Spain and the EU have announced several concessions to the protesting farmers, Spanish groups are demanding more measures.

The union COAG on Wednesday called for Spain to immediately halt fresh produce imports from Morocco after imported strawberries were found to be carrying Hepatitis A.