Spanish Farmers Join EU Protests

Facts

• Farmers in Spain hit the streets on Tuesday to protest high costs, regulations, and competition from other countries by blocking roads across the country with their tractors. The protesters blocked traffic from Seville and Granda in the south to Girona near the French border.¹
• Tuesday's protesters are members of the Spanish Young Farmers' Association (ASAJA), which is voicing its opposition to EU environmental regulations they say are putting them at a disadvantage compared to other agricultural markets.²
• Spain is the latest in a series of similar farmer protests, including in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy. While most of the grievances being voiced around the continent have been similar, some French farmers previously accused their Spanish counterparts of not following all the EU's rules and thus undermining them.³
• This comes after Spain's Agriculture Ministry offered around €270M ($290M) to compensate 140K amid droughts and issues due to the war in Ukraine.⁴
• On top of protecting member states from foreign competition, the European Commission has now offered to drop a provision of its Green Deal that would require a 50% reduction in pesticide use by 2030. Despite such concessions from the EU and individual countries, many farmers have rejected financial assistance packages as insufficient.⁵
• In Italy, farmers took to the streets on Monday, voicing similar complaints about the EU while calling on the government to readopt 2017 income tax breaks that were taken out of this year's national budget.²

Sources: ¹Reuters.com, ²FOX News, ³BBC News, ⁴Associated Press and ⁵EL PAÍS English.

Narratives

• Progressive narrative, as provided by Guardian. After achieving historic environmental policies across the EU — such as protecting land for soil rejuvenation and banning toxic pesticides — the EU has decided to throw its hands in the air once again in the face of angry right-wing protesters threatening to block traffic. The EU must stand strong in its stance on environmentalism — otherwise, antagonists will get their way every time they decide they don't like a Green Deal law.
• Conservative narrative, as provided by Europeanconservative. Farmers are still protesting because they know these concessions are only lip service. Coming the same day the European Commission promised new concessions, the regulatory body is also planning to issue its revised climate agenda — one that essentially nullifies any recent promises it has made to the farmers. The main provision in this agenda will be to reduce CO2 emissions by 90% by 2040, which will require destroying the agriculture industry in the process.