This Monday, farmers cut off traffic between the E-80 and N-620 highways, which connect Spain and Portugal on the border of Vilar Formoso and Fuentes de Oñoro (Salamanca), to demand improvements in the sector that are already coming. demanding throughout the EU in recent days.
The closure of the highway and the highway, in both directions of traffic, began at 8 in the morning (nine o’clock in Spain), after the arrival of dozens of tractors and other agricultural vehicles at this point that connects the Central region of Portugal with the Spanish province of Salamanca. This is the Spanish-speaking area with the greatest traffic of heavy vehicles, which is why an extensive backlog of trucks has formed that has had to stop moving.
Ángel Calderero, a rancher from Salamanca, is one of those who demonstrated and in statements to EFE he stated that “the measures that the EU is taking are preventing farmers from being able to plant what they want” and has assured that this will cause “a lack of cereal and of products and the ruin of agriculture and livestock.
The mayor of Fuentes de Oñoro, Laura Vicente, who attended the demonstration to support the farmers and who is also professionally linked to this sector, has declared that “the countryside and agriculture are in danger of extinction.” According to Vicente, “what all these people want is to work, because without agriculture and without livestock there is no food on the table and these men have the key to our refrigerators and they are the ones who know how to make food.”
The Spanish Civil Guard and agents of the Portuguese National Republican Guard patrol this border area, although for the moment, the situation is normal. The farmers have assured that they intend to remain on these cross-border roads until they are heard.
Faced with protests by agricultural professionals throughout Portugal, the acting Socialist Government announced on Wednesday that it will make available an allocation of 500 million euros to mitigate the drought and counteract cuts to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union.
However, this decision did not paralyze the planned demonstrations, which began on a large scale last Thursday, when farmers began to cut some strategic border points with Spain, both Vilar Formoso and Elvas, to demand improvements in the countryside.
