The protests that farmers have started in recent days in various parts of Catalonia are going to converge today in Barcelona, ??where a chaotic day of traffic could be recorded. They have taken a little longer, but the protests in recent weeks in different European capitals have already reached here. The columns of tractors hope to reach the headquarters of the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, where Minister David Mascort will have to add to his headaches due to the drought the new ones that the problems in the countryside will generate. The name does not do the trick, but look at the detail of the name of the department that has even lost the word agriculture, which was dropped in one of the last restructurings of the Government. It has now been replaced by Rural Agenda.
There are many reasons for the unrest in the countryside, although four could be highlighted: the excessive bureaucratization to access aid, the downward adjustment of the prices of agricultural products, the competition from non-EU countries that can present cheaper products because they are subject to less regulation, and environmental demands. The EU’s response to the protests of recent days has been to focus on this last demand, which is the easiest but the worst in terms of the future of our ecosystem. And thus the withdrawal of the European Commission’s proposal to reduce the use of pesticides was announced.
For a long time now there has been open competition between the environmentalist discourse in favor of measures against climate change and the reality of the agricultural sector that cannot survive with the environmental defense measures that they want to impose on it. A few months before a disputed European election, Brussels has not wanted to complicate its life and has chosen to please the farmers. Then, once the elections are held, we will look at how to resolve the issue of the future of the planet. As they say in the noble sport of rugby, kick and keep going.
