Asaja, COAG and Unión de Uniones have decided to put the large tractor march and demonstration of farmers and ranchers scheduled for this Wednesday in Madrid on hold, as a sign of respect following the serious rail accident recorded in the province of Toledo, in which at least thirty people have lost their lives.
For this day, the arrival in the capital of thousands of agricultural professionals and hundreds of tractors from numerous parts of the country was expected, with the intention of filling the streets of Madrid and demanding urgent responses that ensure the profitability of farms and the future of the agricultural sector.
The mobilization, organized by Asaja, COAG and Unión de Uniones, had been structured into five columns of tractors that began the march early from Torrejón de la Calzada, Guadalajara, El Espinar, Buitrago del Lozoya and Arganda del Rey. The objective was to denounce the increase in production costs, the lack of profitability and "the threats that compromise the future" of agriculture and livestock farming.
However, after the accident between a Renfe train and another from Iryo in Urda (Toledo), which has caused at least 30 deaths, the organizations have opted to postpone the protest and observe five minutes of silence in memory of the victims.
A postponed protest, not canceled, for the survival of the sector
The organizers, joined by Cooperativas Agroalimentarias de España, insist that the tractor march is postponed, but not canceled. The protest event was based on five major demands. The first, the launch of a shock plan against the rise in input costs, with the immediate implementation of a professional agricultural diesel and a reduced and stable tax system, with direct discounts at the time of refueling.
The sector is calling for a structural solution and, until it arrives, "sufficient extraordinary measures" that allow it to cope with the extra cost of fuel and the rest of the means of production that are suffocating the rural environment. They warn that, without these measures, production such as cereals will be doomed to ruin and a serious risk of disappearance.
At the community level, they call for a future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) "strong that protects the income" of farmers and ranchers in the face of uncertainty about the next agricultural framework. They reject any cut in the budget allocated to the countryside and call for a truly common CAP, with "sufficient" funding and its two pillars clearly differentiated.
Another central axis of the protest is "fair prices" and the effective enforcement of the Food Chain Law. The organizations denounce that producers continue to be the weakest link in the chain, bearing increases in costs that they cannot pass on in the prices they receive for their products.
Likewise, they stand up to unfair competition derived from certain trade agreements. They maintain that European productions cannot compete with imports that are not subject to the same requirements. For this reason, they reiterate their opposition to the EU-Mercosur agreement under the current conditions and to the pact with Morocco, and call for regulatory reciprocity and rigorous border controls.
The last block of their demands focuses on the administrative burden. They ask for "less paperwork and fewer rules," considering that farmers and ranchers should be able to dedicate themselves to their farms instead of spending more and more hours on procedures, records, and bureaucratic obligations.