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Date Published: 21/02/2024

Murcia farmers protest: Tractors, traffic, launching lemons and free fruit

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This was the scene at the Murcia tractor protests this Wednesday February 21

Farmers in Murcia were protesting today against unfair EU trade and agricultural practices as part of wider demonstrations around Europe.

For much of the morning and early afternoon, go-slow tractor marches and stoppages on Murcia motorways and dual carriageways caused lengthy traffic jams in virtually the whole Region.

Traffic in and around Murcia capital city was the worst affected area, with police recommending that people walk around the city rather than drive due to the many closed streets.

There were 21 kilometres of traffic jams recorded on the RM-19 Mar Menor highway and also holdups on the RM-15 road in Bullas and the A-33 between Yecla and Jumilla. From the early hours of the morning, over 300 trucks, tractors and vans from Águilas and Puerto Lumbreras gathered in Lorca to stage a protest. The farmers estimate that there were a total of 2,000 vehicles on Murcia roads in solidarity with them today.

The farmers’ main point of focus, however, was the Government Delegation building in Murcia city, where they were trying to secure a meeting with high-ranking government officials to discuss their demands. Last Wednesday, they managed to achieve just that when they trapped the regional president, Fernando López Miras, in his car.

Today, in front of the government building, several protestors threw boxes full of lemons and tomatoes at the doors of the building and in the street, blocking traffic in both directions.

But that’s not what happened with most of the produce. In the nearby Plaza de la Cruz Roja, long queues formed to collect fruit and vegetables which were being handed out by the Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives in Murcia (FECOAM) free of charge.

They formed lines around the block to receive everything from broccoli and cauliflower to lemons and tomatoes, and some people had to wait for several hours to get to the front of the queue.

In total, an estimated 25,000 kilos of vegetables were handed out by the farmers in an astute move to win public popularity to their cause. These handouts may help some families eat for a week.

There was also a loudspeaker next to them repeating the farmers’ demands and lamenting the fact that they get paid a pittance for their produce while the supermarkets charge prices sometimes hundreds of times higher.

At the same time, there was a mass demonstration in Málaga and in the Spanish capital, Madrid, with farmers blocking many major roads.

Images: FECOAM

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