The countryside is rising up. And without waiting for the official call for protests, which the three large agrarian organisations, Asaja, COAG and UPA, are preparing to imitate in Spain the discontent seen in France, Germany, Italy or Greece, roads throughout the country were brought to a standstill this Tuesday.
They come out to demand a more flexible Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). They lack a clear leader and many admit that they have been summoned through various WhatsApp and Telegram chats. They are also taking this step forward without, in most cases, having the required authorisation to demonstrate and they do not have clear plans for the next few hours.
The immediate options are to go out again or wait to join the official protests, which start on Thursday, and each group is deciding its next steps. After cutting off twenty roads, access to the port of Malaga and MercaZaragoza, in addition to causing the mobilisation of 200 riot police in Madrid to stop the arrival of farmers to the M-30 or M-40, there are those who have chosen to leave and others, to camp out.
Decisions have been made in assemblies called after hours of hard work. Thus, for example, 150 farmers who were cutting the C-17 in Catalonia this Tuesday have decided to spend the night on the road and march this Wednesday morning towards Barcelona, to the headquarters of the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Generalitat.
