“Costs continue to rise. We are ranchers in extinction” or “SOS rural world” were slogans that were read on the banners at the demonstration called by the Rural Alliance platform, which claims to represent 10 million people from the Spanish countryside.
With Spanish flags and whistles, people walked four kilometers through central avenues of Madrid, from the headquarters of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition to the Ministry of Agriculture, led by a long line of tractors that honked their horns.
“This government is a wreck, fuel is getting more expensive“Nora Guzmán told AFP, aboard a green tractor from Pozuelo de Alarcón, on the western outskirts of Madrid.
“Today is the beginning of seeking solutions to 80% of the territory that we occupy. Enough already, let the president of the government stop traveling and start acting,” Pedro Barato, president of the Asaja agricultural association, told reporters.
Producers complain about the escalation of fuel or fertilizer prices while they say they have to sell with meager profits, while rejecting laws of the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez, such as animal welfare, which restricts the breeding of dogs for grazing or hunting.
“Today animals are protected more than people” thanks to “incoherent and absurd regulations that the government wants to impose on us,” complained Fernando Sáez, a farmer who came from Córdoba (Andalusia, south) with his hunting dog Cera.
This demonstration in the countryside, which has been protesting for years about its economic situation but also about the rampant depopulation of large rural areas, he received the support of the right-wing and far-right opposition.
“We need a shock plan, a tax system that allows the rural environment to survive,” said Cuca Gamarra, spokesperson for the People’s Party (PP, Conservatives), second political force in the Spanish Parliament.
This protest occurred a day after thousands of demonstrators, called by the extreme right of voxprotested rising food, energy and fuel prices, exacerbated by the war in ukraine.
On Monday, Spanish drivers declared an indefinite strike over fuel prices, which has led to roadblocks and incidents, as the country’s main unions prepare for a nationwide strike on March 23.
Source: Ambito
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