Spain: Tractors choke city streets as farmers protest EU policy

On Thursday, Spanish farmers intensified their demonstrations over rising costs, bureaucracy, and low-cost competition from outside the European Union by operating tractors through city streets and causing traffic disruptions.

The three major farmers’ associations in the nation are supporting the protests, which erupted on their own on Tuesday after spreading to neighboring EU nations.

Protesters in the northern city of Vitoria rang cowbells in front of the Basque regional parliament, which was being guarded by police wearing riot gear.

A large number of tractors with their drivers camped out in the city center of Barcelona encircled the regional parliament.

Smaller cities across the nation experienced traffic disruptions, including central Avila and Antequera in the south.

Farmers from Spain have joined their counterparts in Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium, where demonstrations have occasionally descended into violence.

Farmers around the EU contend that their competitiveness is diminished relative to farmers in other regions by environmental protection regulations. They also claim that red tape and taxes are choking them.

Discontent about unfair competition has been stoked by large volumes of imports from Ukraine, for which the EU has waived quotas and levies since Russia’s invasion, as well as by ongoing discussions to clinch a trade pact between the EU and South American group Mercosur.

12 people were detained by police during Wednesday’s protests, which included blockades of multiple sizable warehouses for the distribution of commodities, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry. Retail associations and the government do not anticipate any impending food shortages.

Over 80,000 trucks were reportedly impacted by the blockades, according to the FENADISMER transport federation.

Spanish farmers have been blocking roads, ports, and boulevards in Barcelona and other cities since Tuesday. They also stopped ports in Malaga and Castellon.

The government reacted to the demonstrations by providing up to 140,000 farmers with additional subsidies worth 269 million euros ($290 million), while the European Commission, the EU executive, abandoned a proposal to cut pesticide use in half throughout the bloc.

(With agency inputs)