This Wednesday, Catalan farmers maintained the blockade of the roads closed on Tuesday in Girona, with the AP-7 being the most prominent point.David Borrat (EFE)
The farmers of Girona, who have been blocking the two main roads with France, the AP-7 and the N-II, since Tuesday, decided yesterday afternoon to lift the blockade of both roads indefinitely. They are demanding a meeting with Climate Protection Minister David Mascort – who did not appear at the meeting on Tuesday for personal reasons – and that the agreements agreed in the negotiations do not remain a dead letter. The advisor had postponed the meeting until Monday, but this Thursday he will finally receive the farmers in Barcelona. For now, the demonstrators are sticking to their protest and are threatening to keep it going until Monday. The closure of both roads will also cause delays of two to eight kilometers on the roads around the closures where traffic is being rerouted. The mobilizations of farmers in Lleida have also blocked eight roads.
This Thursday morning, a dozen roads were blocked in Catalonia. In Girona, the AP-7 protrudes in both directions between Girona and Figueres, severely affecting traffic between France and Spain. The main alternative road, the N-II, is also closed, as is the C-31 in Ventalló. Other secondary border crossings are also closed. These are the N-152 in Puigcerdà and the Coll d'Ares road. There are significant traffic problems on the roads adjacent to these arteries due to the accumulation of trucks. In Lleida, the AP-2 is closed on the border between Catalonia and Aragon. There are also failures on the A-2 in Tàrrega and on the C-14, causing problems with access to the Pyrenees and Andorra. The approaches to Val d'Aran also see cuts on the N-260 and N-230. There is no reopening forecast.
Late yesterday afternoon, some demonstrators drove seven tractors to the adviser's house in Vilablareix, the municipality of which he was mayor. Two Mossos riot squads and eight police vehicles blocked the road to prevent the farmers from reaching the house. In total there were around thirty agents on duty. From the Department of Climate Action and Rural Agenda of the Generalitat, they explained that after the meeting with the Pagesa platform on Tuesday and despite the fact that a follow-up meeting was scheduled for March 11, the advisor will be received this Thursday at 11 a.m. shares the department communicates to the representatives of the agricultural organizations participating in Taula Agrària Camilo S. Baquero.
Farmers from the Delta de l'Ebre and Baix Llobregat as well as the Confédération Paysanne of France joined the protest in Pontós (Alt Empordà), which produced a manifesto called the Pontós Declaration to show their support. They issued a joint statement calling for market regulation tools and a strengthening of community preference for agricultural products from the European Union in order to reverse the fall in prices at the point of origin and counteract the increase in production costs. During the day, they emptied trailers of sand, crossed trees and cut large branches onto the asphalt, and dumped boxes of tomatoes and peppers from Morocco, which they removed from trucks on Tuesday.
After eating a fideuá, of which hundreds of dishes were served, and receiving a proposal from the Ministry of the Generalitat that they described as “ridiculous” and “ridiculous,” the farmers decided to make the traffic restriction “indefinite.” , explained a spokesman for Revolta Pagesa, Martí Planas. The manager of the Unió de Pagesos in Girona, Narcís Poch, attributed this decision to the “disillusionment” with which the Mascort sector has received what he considers a “disgrace”. Planas stated: “Only the city council can prevent this” and explained that they will not move anything until they meet with the head of the climate protection department and agree on some of the points that were put on the table but were not taken into account. hold.
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The mobilized sector, which feels “very strong”, calls for the elimination of unfair competition and calls for regulatory instruments for markets and commercial exchanges that ensure fair competition and prices that take into account the costs of production commitments. Also the immediate cessation of negotiations on free trade agreements and the departure of agriculture and food from the current rules of the World Trade Organization, so that other sectors of the economy are no longer favored “at the expense of local agricultural and food products”.
They also call for a review of the European directive on unfair practices in the food chain, which eliminates “all forms of abuse and unfair competition by large-scale industry and large-scale distribution in the food chain” affecting the first step of this chain: agricultural production. The Pontós Declaration also calls for a review of the Common Agricultural Policy in order to strengthen the Community's preference for agricultural products, to simplify and de-bureaucratize their management and control, and to support professionals and people in the distribution of aid, not only on land or carcasses. They also demand the change of name of the ministry, the resignation of the management of the Catalan Water Authority (ACA) due to what they consider to be poor management of the drought and the recording of the agreements made in the protocol. .
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