Catalan farmers are preparing new mobilizations for this Wednesday that could directly affect Barcelona. After a day of protest all over Catalonia on Tuesday, which have left more than a dozen major routes blocked and almost 30 highways affected in all, the action by the agricultural and livestock sectors will bring their protest action into the big city from this Wednesday. The farmers who blocked the A-2 motorway in the west of Catalonia with their vehicles have decided in an assembly that tomorrow at 7am they will set off in their the tractors towards the Catalan capital. Those of Central Catalonia have also decided to hold a "go-slow", heading towards Barcelona in their tractors on Wednesday morning, although they plan to remain at the gates of the city and hold a major mobilization there on Thursday. Those from the counties of Berguedà, Bages and Solsonès, who blocked the C-16 route on Tuesday, will take the tractors to join forces with those from the Vallès on the C-55 and C-58 highways. Other farmers, based in Girona and Tarragona, plan to hold meetings in the next few hours to decide whether they will join these protests.
This Tuesday, farmers from all over Catalonia managed to close down mobility on the main Catalan routes, with approximately thirty major roads affected. Thousands of farmers, with their tractors, paralysed the main north-south motorway, the AP-7, at both ends of Catalonia: in Aldea in the south and Girona in the north, but they also blocked the connection between Barcelona and Lleida by blocking traffic flow on the A-2 near Fondarella. The N-II in Girona, the AP-2 and the N-240 in Montblanc have also been closed today, as well as some of the main routes through Central Catalonia, such as the C-16, the C-17 and the C -25, the "transversal" route linking Girona to Cervera. During the day this Tuesday, on major routes like the west-east A-2 and the north-south AP-7, farmers set up tables for lunch and, in some cases, expressed plans to spend the night on the road, thus keeping up the traffic chaos until a new day of protest dawns on Wednesday.
Whey are they protesting? The agricultural sectors are fed up with excessive costs and bureaucracy in the sector and are denouncing that major food distributors are "putting an end" to farmers. From 8am this Tuesday, farmers began congregating at several points around Catalonia, in some cases with their tractors, in protest at the crisis in the sector and the agricultural policies of the European Union. The Catalan rural sector workers are thus emulating the mobilizations taking place just over the Pyrenees in France due to the very difficult situation that the sector is experiencing.
As reported by the farmers' trade union, Unió de Pagesos, the mobilizations, go-slows and roadblocks at different points along Catalonia's motorways and highways have brought together almost 4,000 tractors throughout the territory, with 1,500 in the Plana de Lleida; 500 in the counties of Girona, 400 at Sant Fruitós del Bages and 150 in Vic (both in the Central Catalonia area), 300 in Montblanc (Conca de Barberà county), 200 in Vilafranca del Penedès (Alt Penedès county), 200 in Amposta (Montsià), 150 in Vila -rodona (Alt Camp), 150 in Móra d'Ebre (Ribera d'Ebre), 180 in La Seu d'Urgell (Alt Urgell), 40 in Vilaller (Alta Ribagorça), 25 in Tortosa (Baix Ebre), 280 in Granollers and 20 in the Vallès Oriental and Occidental.
