Spanish farmers drove their tractors through city streets disorganising traffic on Thursday as they ramped up their protest against increasing costs, authorities and cheap competition from outside the European Union.
The protests, which began impulsively on Tuesday after it spilt over from other EU countries, are spearheaded by the country’s three main farmers’ associations.
Many tractors surrounded the regional parliament in Barcelona after their drivers slept in the city centre at night.
The farmers also disrupted traffic in little cities all over the country, including in central Avila, Vitoria in the north and Antequera in the south.
Spanish farmers have joined their counterparts from Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, where protests have occasionally turned violent to protest their dissatisfaction.
The farmers across the European Union have alleged that the rules to protect the environment make them less competitive than the farmers in other regions. They have also said that they are being choked by taxes and red tape.
Significant amounts of imports from Ukraine, for which the EU has rejected quotas and duties since Russia’s invasion, and recommenced negotiations to finish a trade deal between the EU and South American bloc, Mercosur, have fanned the flames of discontent about unfair competition.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Interior Ministry has said that police officials have detained 12 people during Wednesday’s protests. The protests had included blockades of many large goods distribution centres but the government and retail associations have said that do not expect imminent food shortages.
The FENADISMER transport federation announced that the blockades were affecting over 80,000 trucks.
The protests forced the government to allocate an extra 269 million euros ($290 million) in subsidies for as many as 140,000 farmers, and for the European Commission, the EU executive, to ditch the proposal to reduce pesticide use by half, in the bloc.
