The tractors return to Madrid to ask for solutions for the countryside: "They confuse agriculture with the environment"

The World Madrid

Madrid

Updated Sunday, March 17, 2024-12:41

The field has returned this Sunday to the center of Madrid.

Hundreds of farmers and ranchers began to gather shortly before noon around the Ministry for the Ecological Transition to begin the demonstration that will bring together 150 and 200 tractors, 2,000 people and 50 buses, convened by the Union of Unions, in order to demand solutions for the field.

The tractors are arriving to the capital as they did a few weeks ago in five columns from five access points, from five provinces, to reach the meeting point, the headquarters of the Ecological Transition, from where the demonstration will depart along the Paseo de la Castellana. until reaching the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

The state coordinator of Unión de Uniones,

Luis Cortés

, has asked the Government for "commitments" to promote a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) starting in September, and measures for food production at "fair" prices for farmers , ranchers and citizens.

Cortés has declared to the press that measures are needed to resolve the crisis in the countryside and not "patches", as what in his opinion are the proposals presented so far by the Government.

In this sense, he has also pointed out that agricultural policies "

confuse agriculture with the environment",

in words reported by the

Efe

agency , and do not allow food to be produced at affordable prices.

The motto of the demonstration is "We still have plenty of reasons."

Cortés has also spoken about the next European elections, which will be held between June 6 and 9, and has said that his organization will be "vigilant" over the electoral lists, because many MEPs "have no idea about the agrarian issue."

Furthermore, he has asked that in the new EU legislature, starting in September, once the new European Parliament is established, "

a new CAP regulation be negotiated

, an intermediate reform is needed": "We all say it, the farmers and the French and the Germans.

With this spirit, a day of protests began that follows in the wake of the demonstrations of several weeks ago.

On this occasion, the organizers have lowered their attendance forecasts with respect to the initial ones - which pointed to 1,500 tractors - while the data from the Government Delegation point to a mobilization that is proceeding "normally" and with a volume of 78 tractors in these moments.

At today's rally, in addition, a

donation of 125 liters of

olive oil will be made to Father Ángel's NGO Messengers of Peace.

It is the third demonstration in Madrid of the agricultural sector of the current wave of mobilizations that farmers and ranchers in Spain began six weeks ago, which are also maintained by producers from other countries of the European Union (EU) to demand reforms of the Agrarian Policy Common (PAC) and fair prices for their productions.