Spanish farmers blocked traffic on some of the country’s main motorways on Tuesday, joining colleagues from other European countries protesting against high prices, bureaucracy and competition from non-EU countries, local media reported.
Donaciano Dujo, vice president of ASAJA, one the largest farmers associations in Spain, told national broadcaster TVE:
With different shades, in the whole of the European Union, we have the same problems.
ASAJA and other farmers’ associations had been calling for protests since Thursday, but many farmers took to the roads with their tractors on Tuesday, causing traffic jams across the country from Seville and Granada in the south to Girona near the French border, road authorities said. Dujo added:
The countryside is fed up.
Hundreds of tractors gathered in convoy on a motorway near the Italian city of Bologna, completely blocking traffic. Farmers also drove through the city, signalling and waving Italian flags.
Farmers from agricultural regions such as Tuscany headed south towards the capital under the Italian flag and carrying handwritten signs with slogans such as:
No farmer, no food
They are expected to gather on the outskirts of Rome in anticipation of more protests later in the week.
Like their counterparts in France, Belgium, Italy and Portugal, the Spanish and Italian farmers argue that strict rules imposed on farmers by the EU to protect the environment make them less competitive with their counterparts in other regions, such as Latin America or non-EU Europe. Over the past few days, blockades in France and Belgium have sometimes escalated into violent clashes with police.
In Portugal, tractors are continuing the blockades started on 2 February on the roads highway connections with Spain.
Slovak farmers are ready to join the protest and cooperate with farmers from their Visegrad country neighbours against “EU green fanaticism”.
According to media reports, Latvian farmers are protesting on Monday in 16 cities of the country, calling for an immediate ban on imports of foodstuffs. Spontaneous blockades occurred on the weekend at the Belgian-Dutch border.
To date, Austria, Denmark, Finland and Sweden are the only EU countries where farmers have not taken to the streets. While mass rallies continue in some countries, others have paused to consider their next steps and mobilise additional forces.
