The recently created platform 6F, linked to the extreme right, and the National Platform for the Defense of Transport have failed in their attempt to capitalize on the discontent of the countryside in Madrid and lead a large mobilization against the Government and the 2030 Agenda.
The city woke up besieged by the false expectations of a protest that had begun at midnight and that promised in the Telegram and WhatsApp groups to paralyze access and lead to Ferraz Street, for which permission had not been requested from the Ministry of the Interior. . The main farmers’ associations, which are Asaja, COAG and UPTA, had disengaged because their intention is to mobilize again starting Monday.
During the day, the DGT has not reported any problems in the accesses to Madrid, where the Civil Guard has established specific controls. The only road closure in the entire region was reported after four in the afternoon, on a secondary road about 50 kilometers from the city. Yes, there have been incidents of different kinds in Andalusia, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón, Murcia and La Rioja.
In Madrid, half a hundred kilometers is the closest we have seen a tractor stopped on a road all day. Many Madrid residents had canceled trips in anticipation of traffic cuts, but the hours passed and there were only two options left: either the protesters suddenly appeared on the horizon to take over the city or the mobilization through social networks had been an absolute failure.
“We are here and, for the moment, I am sorry to say that we are four cats” is one of the comments written on the platforms of the organizers after 5:00 p.m., when it was going to take place, once the arrival of protesters to the city was thwarted, another of the big events of the day, the meeting of the transporters to decide whether they would join the strikes on platform 6F.
Only 500 people attended the rally on the esplanade of Atlético de Madrid’s stadium, the Civitas Metropolitano, a number similar to the number of police officers that the Ministry of the Interior is mobilizing today in the region.
The National Platform for the Defense of Transport has voted by show of hands in favor of indefinite mobilizations and chanted the proclamation “strike, strike, strike” after the intervention of its president, Manuel Hernández, and Lola Guzmán, who leads the platform 6F and whose messages are very successful on social networks.
They have also reported that, contrary to what was initially planned, they would not finally march to the PSOE headquarters on Ferraz Street, located at the other end of the city. This decision has contributed to a group of protesters marching in the direction of the M-40 to try to cut off traffic, which the police have prevented.
“Here we are not called by any political party, we do not want any union, whether agrarian or political or anything. This is the people against the rulers, against the politicians,” Guzmán told journalists. The organizers of the rally sold yellow vests to attendees.
The transporters have displayed, through banners and messages from their spokespersons, generic slogans in defense of farmers and ranchers, and against “trafficking in people from third countries”, that is, the “substitution of the Spanish driver for exploitation.” “.
In his speech, the president of the platform accused the Government of “bringing them into conflict for not sitting down and listening.” Flags of Spain and several autonomous communities were waved at the meeting. There was also a visible Burgundian cross, the emblem of the Spanish empire and the Carlists.
The representatives of the transporters’ association already managed to sit down two years ago with the then Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, despite not being part of the National Committee for the Transport of Goods by Road (CNTC), the interlocutor body of the sector with the Government. , to which it does not belong.
The closest thing to an altercation during the morning in Madrid were the tone and proclamations in the Telegram groups that stir up the protest, in which there was no shortage of clashes between different sensitivities. Conspiracy speeches were also shared, such as those associating telecommunications antennas and airplane contrails with campaigns to harm and control the population.
Before the start of the event next to the Atlético de Madrid stadium, a young man loudly claimed that “the deaths due to the heat wave were the effects of the vaccine” and that “in the Vietnam War they already tried making changes in the clouds”.
The result of the protest planned at the Valladolid Trade Fair, where the 38th edition of the Goya Awards is being held, remains to be known. The police deployment has prevented the farmers from bringing the tractors, but some of them have come on foot and dressed in yellow vests.
