Farmers’ tractors and yellow vests managed to partially block the center of Madrid this Wednesday. On the fifteenth day of demonstrations in the field, Unión de Uniones, the fourth national organization, and Unió de Pagesos, the first in Catalonia, brought together several thousand professionals from different parts of Spain. There were 4,000 according to the Government Delegation and 10,000 according to the organizers. The protesters consider the 18 proposals raised by the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, insufficient and advance that if they are not convinced by the results of the European Council of Agriculture Ministers on Monday, they will announce new mobilizations.
The Puerta de Alcalá became kilometer zero of the agrarian protests. Five columns with dozens of tractors each arrived there. They had authorization for 500, but they tried to get more. The Civil Guard prevented it. The first farmers, in buses, their private vehicles or train, in the case of the Catalans, blocked the streets Alcalá, Alfonso XII and final de Serrano from the first hour. After 12 o’clock the first heavy vehicles appeared.
The main promoter of the protest was Luis Cortés, an old acquaintance of the Ministry of Agriculture. He has demonstrated his calling ability. “If we are not convinced by what comes out of the Brussels council of ministers, we will return to the capital,” he said. Unió de Pagesos was also in Madrid with 500 representatives and six tractors, explained its leader Joan Caball. “We Catalans have to defend Catalan agriculture, each territory has to put pressure,” he proclaimed. “Fewer words and more actions,” he asked the central government and the Generalitat. The organization announced its intention to block the border with France on the 27th and 28th. They also pointed out that they will focus on logistics centers and food distribution, companies, Caball said, that are the “big beneficiaries” of the Food Chain law.
The demonstration in Madrid was mostly peaceful. But as the morning progressed and news arrived of tractors blocked on the outskirts of the capital, tempers began to heat up. The promoters proclaimed from the public address system “if they want war, they will have war,” and sent farmers to try to break the police cordon to access the Paseo del Prado. The riot police had orders to prevent it. There was a moment of tension, with some burden. Cortés himself was hit in the leg. “I was the only one who arrived in Cibeles, but by ambulance,” he joked later.
At 1:30 p.m. the demonstration left for the Ministry of Agriculture. During the march, in which some oxen could be seen, slogans were chanted against the CAP and in favor of “fair prices”, as in the majority of tractor rallies that have been taking place for three consecutive weeks. “Agenda 2030” was a term that was heard critically in part of the tour. Another moment of tension with the National Police occurred when the farmers tried to get more tractors than allowed, thirty, to the doors of the Ministry of Agriculture. There was pushing and shoving with the riot police, without major consequences.
The same slogans were chanted in front of the ministry. Some insult towards the Government and over the public address system we heard “we won’t move from here until everyone comes.” Several dozen tractors were still stuck on the access roads. “These are people who have made a lot of effort to come and who have gone two days without sleep,” Cortés proclaimed. But as the sun went down, the farmers began to leave the area: “My bus is leaving and I have to go,” he heard himself. The same thing happened in Puerta de Alcalá, where some tractors remained. Before 8 p.m. traffic was reestablished.
The demonstration was also a hostile takeover against the agrarian organizations that Minister Planas met with last week, Asaja, COAG and UPA. The Union of Unions defined them as “class unions.” “We are not that, we defend the countryside,” the fourth country group in the country wanted to make clear. They asked for “agrarian elections now.”
Minister Planas affirmed this Wednesday that he respects the right to demonstrate in accordance with the law and according to the authorization issued. Sánchez, for his part, reported from Morocco that he had sent a letter to the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, to request a reduction in the CAP bureaucracy and activate mirror clauses. “This is a government committed to the countryside,” defended the president.
