The Civil Guard has blocked the passage of the tractors that were scheduled to circulate this morning on the A-31 and A-7 highways, in the vicinity of Villena and San Isidro, following the orders of the Government Subdelegation that ratified yesterday in a ruling the court to which Asaja had filed an appeal.
Many farmers have expressed their frustration and complaints to the media and to the leaders of the convening agricultural organizations, who have considered it prudent not to force a situation that would have caused the intervention of the anti-riot agents deployed for the occasion.
Asaja yesterday demanded the resignation of the Government Subdelegate, considering the prohibition of a protest on the highways that was communicated a long time ago to be unjustified and excessive.
The president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, did the same today, who has requested the “withering dismissal” of the subdelegate Juan Antonio Nieves for communicating “late and poorly” the rejection of the permit for the farmers’ tractor unit in the province.
Specifically, the Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community confirmed yesterday, Thursday, in a ruling, the decision of the Subdelegation of the Government of Alicante to modify the itinerary of two protest tractor units.
Mazón has asked for “immediate explanations” from the Government delegate in the Community, Pilar Bernabé, as well as the “withering termination” of the subdelegate for doing things “late, poorly and generating insecurity to which they have no right.”
“After fifteen days since the permits were requested to be able to democratically demonstrate to fight for their rights, six hours after this concentration took place, the right to demonstrate that irrigators have with all the right in the world was arbitrarily denied and prevented” , stated the head of the Consell. Mazón considers that this generates “insecurity and grievance”, since “there is no precedent for something like this.”
“The denial of the permit, at the last minute, is generating a lack of security and a lack of respect for the demonstrations that are taking place right now, since we have a kind of bizarre situation of the Civil Guard, which is also not to blame for anything, asking the IDs of the protesters, who 15 days ago warned that they were going to demonstrate with all the right in the world and with all the justification in the world,” Mazón stressed.
In response to his demand, the Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, has assured that Mazón questions a decision of the TSJCV and also the Civil Guard, which made a negative report warning of the danger to the safety of drivers. on the highway and highways.
“How many more institutions to call into question. It is intolerable that a president of the Generalitat calls into question decisions of a Superior Court of Justice just for political gain,” Bernabé declared.
Around 10 in the morning, more than a hundred farmers gathered this Friday in the La Granadina industrial estate, in San Isidro, where they threw about 8,000 kilos of lemons to the ground. “Dumping lemons here because they have no price is a true crime, a defect of European policy, which is incapable of putting in place sufficient mechanisms to stabilize the market and provide an outlet and a decent price to farmers,” said the president of the Valencian Farmers Association, Cristóbal Aguado.
A protest where there has been no shortage of criticism and shouting towards the organizers who “have come to take a photo”, according to the farmers who, independently, have been in this industrial estate for several days, where on more than one occasion they have cut off access. , paralyzing its activity and retaining hundreds of trucks.
“There are those who distrust agricultural organizations that have not supported the mobilizations from the beginning. If we are at this point it is thanks to the work of spontaneous organizations. Even so, we must convey a message of unity, that we are together against the ruin, apathy and abandonment of the sector,” stated, for his part, the president of the Huerta Vega Baja Association, Francisco Mora.
After 11:30 a.m., the farmers left for Orihuela by road, given the prohibition on simultaneously cutting the A-7 and A-31 highways and roads from three points in the province: San Isidro, Villena and Planes.
The president of the Valencian Farmers Association has asked for the resignation of the head of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, “and for a minister to come in who understands that without water, the Spanish southeast cannot have that green barrier to combat the desert.”
“We want to have our fields green. With stable and quality production,” claimed Aguado, who has also demanded a European Food Chain Law where “there is transparency and not everyone lives off the farmer, but rather he lives alongside others.”
And he added: “We want to live with dignity, for young people to join, recover abandoned land, for the bureaucracy to be removed and for agreements with third countries to be analyzed again. For there to be an impact study where European farmers are defended.” .
While the president of the Young Farmers Association (Asaja) of Alicante, José Vicente Andreu, has denounced that they are being “mistreated” due to the refusal to be able to cut the A-7 and A-31 highways, as they intended.
He also stressed that “the objective is for the voice of the farmers” of the Valencian Community “to reach where it needs to reach, to the Government of Spain and to Europe, and to reorient these very aggressive policies for the countryside.”
He has insisted on Ribera’s dismissal and has criticized Spain’s water policy, since, in his opinion, “since 2004 it has been disoriented.” “We ask for a radical change. We are an essential sector for society and every day it is more difficult to exercise it. We have limitations for everything that third countries do not comply with,” Andreu denounced.
According to the farmers, this Friday’s mobilization represents “the union of a sector especially disadvantaged by low prices at origin, unfair competition from third countries and the water problem.” The objective, they have reiterated, is to “mark the path towards structural and firm solutions that are reflected in short, medium and long-term improvements for farmers and ranchers.”
