About 500 tractors, supported by thousands of farmers and ranchers from all over Spain and called by Asaja, COAG, and Unión de Uniones, will march through the streets of Madrid this Wednesday to demand immediate measures that ensure the profitability of agricultural operations and guarantee the future of the rural world, according to the organizing organizations.
The three agricultural organizations, joined by Cooperativas Agroalimentarias de España, are mobilizing under the slogan "We produce your food, we deserve to live from our work" and have decided to coordinate to demand "urgent" responses to the serious problems facing the sector: the rising costs of inputs, the lack of margins, and the threats looming over the continuity of many operations.
The 'tractorada' is structured around five major demands. The first is an emergency plan against the increase in production costs, with the immediate implementation of a professional agricultural diesel, so that there is reduced and stable taxation, with bonuses applied directly at the time of refueling.
Farmers and ranchers insist that they need a lasting solution and, until one is articulated, "sufficient extraordinary measures" to address the extra cost of fuel and other means of production that are suffocating the rural environment. They warn that, if no action is taken, sectors such as cereal production will be ruined and at serious risk of disappearing.
Secondly, the organizations demand a future CAP "strong enough to protect the income" of farmers and ranchers in the face of uncertainty about the next framework of agricultural policy. They reject any cuts to the budget and call for a truly common CAP, with "sufficient" funding and with its two pillars clearly differentiated.
The third axis of their demands is "fair prices" and a Food Chain Law that is effectively enforced. They consider it unacceptable that farmers and ranchers continue to be the most fragile link in a chain where their costs soar without being able to pass them on to the prices they receive for their products.
In fourth place, they denounce the unfair competition derived from certain trade agreements, reminding that European productions cannot compete with imports that do not respect the same requirements. Therefore, they reiterate their rejection of the EU-Mercosur agreement under the current conditions and the agreement with Morocco, in addition to demanding regulatory reciprocity and rigorous border controls.
The fifth point focuses on bureaucracy. They demand "less paperwork and fewer regulations," emphasizing that farmers and ranchers want to dedicate themselves to their operations and not be forced to invest more and more hours in procedures, registrations, and administrative obligations.
In this scenario, the organizing organizations call on the entire sector to join the mobilization, convinced that it is time "to make it clear, in a forceful way, that the countryside needs solutions to continue producing and living from their work."
Agricultural Cooperatives of Spain also supports this 'tractor protest,' as a large part of the demands coincide with the proposals that the cooperatives have been conveying to national and community administrations.
They warn that the sharp increase in energy costs, especially of diesel B, along with the widespread increase in production costs, the unfair competition from imports that do not meet EU standards, and a disproportionate bureaucratic burden, where the producer is treated as a presumed defrauder, are pushing the viability of hundreds of thousands of agricultural and livestock operations to the limit.
The cooperatives emphasize that this context demands "urgent measures" that allow maintaining productive capacity and sustaining economic activity and employment in rural areas.
To all this, it is added that the Spanish countryside is "strongly" conditioned by geopolitical uncertainty, the lack of generational change and labor, as well as by the adverse effects of climate change.
Itineraries of the tractors and route of the protest
The tractors will enter Madrid organized in five columns coming from Torrejón de la Calzada, Guadalajara, El Espinar, Buitrago del Lozoya, and Arganda del Rey, using the authorized itineraries, to converge in Colón square, which will be the starting point of the demonstration.
From there, the march will advance along the Recoletos promenade and the Prado promenade to the roundabout of Emperor Charles V, where it will conclude in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Before the demonstration begins, at 11:00 hours, the leaders of Asaja, COAG, and Unión de Uniones, Pedro Barato, Andrés Góngora, and Luis Cortés, respectively, will address the media in Colón square to explain the reasons for the protest and detail the main demands of the sector.