French and Spanish Farmers From Blockade Along Border

(RepublicanDaily.org) – Spanish and French farmers have taken a stand against the European Union’s supposed bias towards cheaper imported product and products that have put the agricultural sectors in France and Spain in dire straits.

Protesting farmers blocked off the border between the two countries that runs through the Pyrenees mountains, saying that the EU has burdened local producers with unreasonable environment rules, higher taxes and expenses, while allowing cheaper imports from outside of the EU to unfairly flood markets and stores in the region.

Hundreds of tractors were parked on most of the major crossings between the two countries, which run along the AP-8 highway in Irun in the Basque Country to the AP-7 highway, La Jonquera in Catalonia. The protest, named the “Revolta Pagesa,” was done to coincide with the approaching EU elections, which protesters hope will highlight the adverse conditions EU regulations have put local farmers in.

“We must protect ourselves and ensure European authorities pay attention to us,” a representative for the protesters told media outlets.

The farmers have been protesting EU farming regulations for months, and did a similar traffic disruption protest earlier in the year, where they sought to call attention to the lack of food security imports create. The protests also managed to secure an extension of subsidy allowances by six months for the weakened agricultural industries in both countries, as well as a relaxation of a number of regulations under the EU’s Green Deal program.

Farmers participating in the current protest say that their demands are more than reasonable.

“We’re not asking for the earth,” cattle farmer Jérôme Bayle told the press. Bayle, who hails from Haute-Garonne in France, said that farmers were just looking for some form of standardization “in terms of regulations and taxes” across the entirety of the EU.

Not all the farming unions joined the protests however. Unió de Pagesos, which represents most of the farmers in Catalan, said that it and its members would not be protesting. The group reasoned that it was “illegitimate” to pressure voters just days before the elections.