Eight days after the strike by lorry drivers and hauliers, the fishing sector has organised a strike along the Spanish coast until today, Wednesday, protesting against the rise in fuel prices: 200 fishermen’s associations, 40,000 members, of which 9,000 are boat owners, are taking part in the strike.
The fishermen’s guilds began a strike on Monday, in protest against rising fuel prices. The fishing fleet will remain moored until today Wednesday 23 March, when the National Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds is due to meet with the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas.
They are asking the government to replicate the measures adopted in Italy and Portugal. Until now, they have been waiting for the government to act, but the fishermen flag the paralysis of the Executive and the lack of response to justify the stoppage.
“It is an unacceptable situation. We don’t understand why the Spanish state has not yet taken action to help the sector,” said the president of the Federació Balear de Cofradías de Pescadores, Domingo Bonnín. He assures that “governments of other countries in the Mediterranean basin, such as France and Italy, have already adopted emergency solutions to immediately support their respective fishing sectors”.
The fishermen’s strike comes against a backdrop of increasing social unrest in other specific sectors. Farmers and stockbreeders took to the streets this weekend to demand measures to boost rural areas, including relief from rising production costs and the regulation of electricity tariffs.
