Several access roads to the border with Spain were blocked on Thursday by farmers in tractors, demanding enhancement of the sector and fair conditions with the threat of moving the protests to Lisbon if their demands are not met.
The Civil Movement of Farmers organised the blocks a day after the government announced a package of more than €400 million, which aims to mitigate the impact of the drought and strengthen the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan (PEPAC).
The farmers began their protests at the start of the day, and, according to the National Republican Guard (GNR), several roads across the country had been restricted by 7.30 am, including the A25 in Guarda (northeast), with a gathering of 200 tractors between two junctions, which brought farmers from all over Beira Interior.
In Elvas, farmers gathered near the Caia border with Spain and threatened to take their protests to Lisbon if the government didn’t contact them about the sector’s demands.
In Santarém, 100 agricultural vehicles created traffic on the Chamusca bridge, while in Beja, between Vila Verde and Ficalho, on National Road 260, farmers demonstrated with around 45 tractors and four heavy vehicles.
Spanish lorry drivers stranded on the border at Vila Verde de Ficalho, in the district of Serpa (Beja, south), due to the cutting of the National Road 260 (EN260) by Alentejo farmers, said they understood the protest, leaving them only the option of returning to base.
Later, the protestors gathered at Chamusca Bridge and moved to a new protest point, intending to cut off traffic on Motorway 23.
In the district of Bragança (northeast), a group of farmers with 60 tractors gathered in Mogadouro to drive slowly along the National Road (EN) 221 to the border.
In Coimbra (centre-east), hundreds of tractors and agricultural machinery travelled slowly along the National Road (EN) 111 towards downtown Coimbra, where the protest organisers hoped to gather 500 vehicles by the end of the morning.
By midday, Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes told SIC TV that farmers should trust the government and that she will ask the EU Commission for authorisation to use the state budget to avoid distortions in the market.
“Farmers must trust the government and the European bodies. The CAP [common agricultural policy] is the only European instrument to deal with food production, and, at the moment, it doesn’t meet the challenges facing farmers,” she said.
The Civil Movement of Farmers, which presents itself as spontaneous and non-partisan, assured that Portuguese farmers are prepared to “defend themselves against the permanent attack on sustainability, food sovereignty and rural life”.
(Maria João Pereira – edited by Maria de Deus Rodrigues|Lusa.pt)
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