Farmers summoned to Government meeting

Farmers, who have been protesting across the country, have been summoned to a meeting with the Government representative today, Luis Planas, the Minister of Agriculture.

“On behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and at the direction of his Cabinet Director, I have the pleasure of calling you to a face-to-face meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on Thursday, February 15 at 11:00 a.m., at the headquarters of the Ministry (Microphone Room). The items on the agenda will be the following: status of the Food Chain Law and its application; administrative simplification of the CAP; EU trade agreements with third countries; and others”. The email was addressed to Pedro Barato, president of ASAJA; Miguel Padilla, general secretary of COAG and Lorenzo Ramos, general secretary of UPA.

Now into the second week of the tractor protests, the Government is finally moving forward and calling on the representatives of farmers and ranchers. It will do so the day after the main agrarian organisations, in unity of action, showed their muscle in what they have called ‘Super Wednesday’, that is, the main day chosen to carry out the largest agrarian mobilisation since the beginning of the protests, having as its most important action a concentration at the doors of Mercamadrid, the largest logistics centre in Spain. In addition, they called tractor units in numerous parts of the country: Santiago de Compostela, Palencia, Burgos, Valladolid, Soria, Guadalajara, Toledo, Cuenca, Cáceres, Jaén, Seville, Málaga, Puerto Motril and the aforementioned Mercamadrid.

The majority of European governments, with their prime ministers at the helm, have received the agrarian organisations after the demonstrations collapsed the main European capitals, putting on the table a concrete package of measures to calm down the protests. In Spain, until now, it had not happened. Only the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, summoned ASAJA, UPA and COAG before the organisers took to the streets with the intention of stopping the protests, but he did not succeed. Then, the Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz, urgently called them for this Tuesday to discuss the lack of labour in the countryside but the agrarian leaders declined the invitation due to “agenda problems” but urged her to move the meeting to another date, which the minister rejected.

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