Spanish farmers blocked major highways for second day against EU policies

Spanish farmers continued their protests for a second consecutive day by blocking major highways with their tractors and disrupting access to port terminals. The demonstrations reflect growing frustration among Europe’s rural population due to high costs, bureaucratic hurdles, and competition from non-EU countries.

Inspired by similar protests elsewhere in Europe and discontent with market conditions, Spanish farmers mobilized on Tuesday, preceding scheduled protests by the country’s main farmers associations. Traffic authorities reported blockades on approximately a dozen major highways across the country on Tuesday morning.

“Some countries don’t respect the rules, they don’t have quality controls,” said Juan, who grows lemons in Andalusia, and was on a blockade in front of the access to Malaga port.
Current lemon prices have ruined his business this year. “They don’t want them not even if I give them away,” he told national broadcaster TVE.

Over the past few weeks, farmers in European countries including Germany, France and Belgium have held protests that sometimes turned violent.

Farmers say demanding rules imposed on them by the EU to protect the environment make them less competitive than peers in other regions, such as Latin America or non-EU Europe. They also complain against increasingly obscure bureaucratic measures imposed on them.

The protests prompted the Spanish government to distribute an extra 269 million euro subsidy for as many as 140,000 farmers and the European Commission to scrap a plan to halve pesticide use in the bloc, which farmers oppose.

With inputs from Reuters.