Tractors and farmers’ yellow vests partially blocked the center of Madrid yesterday. In the fifteenth day of field demonstrations, the Union of Unions, the fourth Spanish organization, and the Union of Farmers, the first in Catalonia, brought together thousands of professionals from different parts of Spain. There were 4,000, according to the Delegation of the Spanish Government, and 10,000, according to the organizers. The demonstrators consider that the 18 proposals put forward by the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, are not enough, and they say that, if the results of the European Council of Ministers of Agriculture on Monday do not weigh on them, they will announce more mobilizations.
The gate of Alcalá became the zero kilometer of the agrarian protests. Five columns with dozens of tractors each arrived there. They were authorized for 500, but they tried to make it more. The Civil Guard prevented it. The first farmers, in coaches, private vehicles and trains, in the case of the Catalans, blocked the streets Alcalá, Alfonso XII and the end of Serrano from the first hour. After twelve noon, the first heavy vehicles appeared.
The main promoter of the protest was Luis Cortés, an old acquaintance of the Ministry of Agriculture. Yesterday he demonstrated his summoning ability. “If we don’t care what comes out of the Council of Ministers in Brussels, we will return to the capital”, he said. The Union of Farmers was also in Madrid, with 500 representatives and six tractors, explained the leader. “We Catalans must defend Catalan agriculture, each territory must press”, he proclaimed. “Less words and more deeds”, he asked the central government and the Generalitat. The organization announced yesterday that it intended to block the border with France on February 27 and 28. They also pointed out that they will focus on logistics centers and food distribution and companies, said Caball, who are the “big beneficiaries” of the Food Chain law.
The demonstration in Madrid was mostly peaceful. But as the morning progressed and news of tractors stranded on the outskirts of the capital came in, spirits began to fade. The promoters proclaimed from the megaphone: “If they want war, they will have war”. And they sent farmers to try to break the police cordon to access Paseo del Prado. The riot police had orders to prevent it. There was a moment of tension, with some burden. Cortés himself received in a leg. “I was the only one who arrived in Cibeles, but with an ambulance”, he said jokingly later.
At half past two, the demonstration left for the Ministry of Agriculture. During the march, in which some bulls could be seen, slogans were chanted against the PAC and in favor of “fair prices”, as in most of the tractor rallies that have taken place for three consecutive weeks. “Agenda 2030” was a term that was heard critically in part of the route. Another moment of tension with the National Police was when the farmers tried to have more tractors arrive at the doors of the Ministry of Agriculture than were allowed, thirty. There were pushes with the riot police, without further consequences.
The same slogans were chanted in front of the ministry. Some expletives towards the Spanish Government, and over the public address system you could hear: “We will not move from here until everyone comes”. Dozens of tractors were still held up on the access roads. “These are people who have made a lot of effort to come and who haven’t slept for two days”, proclaimed Cortés. But in the evening, the farmers began to leave the area: “The bus leaves and I have to go”, he felt. The same thing happened at the gate of Alcalá, where some tractors were left. Before eight in the evening traffic was restored.
Yesterday’s demonstration was also a hostile attack against the agricultural 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”, wanted to make clear the fourth grouping of the country’s countryside. They called for “agrarian elections right now”.
Minister Planas stated yesterday that he respects the right to demonstration in accordance with the laws and according to the authorization that has been made. 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 bureaucracy of the PAC and to activate mirror clauses. “This is a Government committed to the countryside”, defended the president.
