Farmers and ranchers, on the warpath: "We can't take it anymore"

What seemed like a problem foreign to Spain, the insurrection of the rural world in France and other European countries, is now a reality. The first day of mobilizations of farmers, ranchers and the fishing sector took place this Tuesday and the protest was massive. The strikes are going to continue at least until the 21st and the protestors' cry is unanimous: "We can't take it anymore."

The day was marked by tractor units that blocked the main and secondary road network and also key logistics centers for supply or industry, such as the port of Malaga and the wholesale centers of Madrid, Valladolid and Zaragoza.

The protests are going to arrive this Wednesday in Barcelona, ​​with slow marches that will start in different parts of the Catalan geography, and another challenge is to see how the position of the different agents in the sector evolves.

The one who has urged the primary sector to take to the streets is Platform 6F. It is an entity that was established days ago and has managed to ensure that its messages reach massively through social networks. It remains to be seen if the same thing happens in the countryside as in the transporters, who experienced a similar situation in 2022. The organization that called these strikes has already called on truckers to join the mobilization of the rural world indefinitely.

One of the main focuses of the protest was Castilla y León. According to the Government Delegation, more than 5,000 tractors collapsed the main cities to demand an end to the "suffocation" of the countryside. There were protests in Valladolid, Soria, Aranda de Duero (Burgos), Ávila, Segovia and Salamanca.

Mercaolid, the wholesale complex dedicated to the agri-food sector, was blocked from four in the morning until shortly before three in the afternoon, and activity was reduced by 97%.

In addition, eighty tractors left from different points in the province of Ávila towards Mercamadrid, with the aim of blocking the main food distribution platform in Spain.

Lleida was the main center of the protests in Catalonia. This province was one of the first to mobilize, first at the local level, given the echo that the French protests were having just a week ago. In the community, the Unió de Pagesos union has dedicated itself to mobilization.

"People are very burned out and young people don't want to get into the field," said its coordinator in the Alt Camp region, David Sendra. For the 13th, protests are planned at the French border, the Port of Tarragona and the main wholesale agri-food site in southern Europe, Mercabarna.

The port of Malaga was totally affected by farmers' cuts. In Andalusia, the mobilizations reached all the provinces, although in Almería, where their impact was limited. In Seville, one of the main accesses, the Patrocinio bridge, was cut off, where tractors displayed protest banners such as "Our end will be your hunger."

In Aragon, there were around fifty slow tractor movements, and the main impact took place on the accesses to Mercazaragoza, which were cut off.

In Castilla-La Mancha, the protesters managed to block one of their main communication arteries, the A-5 highway that links Madrid and Toledo. The slow marches reached all the provincial capitals.

The mobilizations in the countryside are the first litmus test for a new organization that aspires to take root firmly in the rural world, Platform 6F. He is a hitherto unknown and inexperienced agent and proof of this is that several of the protests are not officially called, something that could have legal consequences.

In any case, the Government avoided confrontation and expressed its "respect" towards the farmers and ranchers who mobilized. "We are aware of what the primary sector has experienced," stressed its spokesperson, Pilar Alegría.