The Government Delegation in Madrid decided on Monday not to authorize the protest that the agricultural associations had organized on Wednesday in Mercamadrid to protest against the impositions of Brussels and the crisis in the sector, a decision that farmers described as a “trap.”
The back of the CTM, in Vallecas, dawned on Wednesday with the presence of just a dozen farmers and many more journalists. «We wanted to do a tractor-trailer and we were denied 48 hours in advance. “The sector did not like it and has not supported this act,” he said. Francisco José García, by Asaja Madrid. The decision of the Delegation, which was communicated at the last minute, the prohibition of access to the tractor area and the dozen Police vans that were brought there by order of the Ministry of the Interior to round up the protesters, had managed to burst the mobilization.
«If you think that they are going to stop us with this, you are wrong. Farmers are people of race, people used to going through a lot. And this is going to give us more strength,” he assured. Felix Exposito, farmer, to this newspaper. Among the field workers who gathered around the distribution platform, his voice resonates like no other. Last week his complaint on a public television network quickly went viral. The message of this olive and cereal farmer is shared by many, although, as he explains, not everyone has the “cojones” to transmit it in such a clear way. A whole life dedicated to the countryside, hands seasoned from picking olives, little to lose, he says, at almost 65 years old, but eager to continue fighting for what belongs to them: dignity for the field.
Like the rest of the workers in this sector, he demands mirror clauses from the European Union, legislation that imposes the same restrictions and standards on products that come from outside the community bloc as on those produced within. «We are competing in a race, we are with a tractor and they are in a Formula One«, denounces in reference to the products that from Morocco or Latin America access Spanish supermarkets without complying with theEU phytosanitary requirements.
Félix places the blame on the Government, which accepts without reluctance or nuance the regulations that are approved in Brussels, regardless of the consequences they have for the Spanish countryside. “We want to live off our own, for our dignity to be respected, we don’t ask for more,” he adds.
Despite a lifetime dedicated to the countryside, Félix is clear that he does not want his children or grandchildren to live off it, not like this. «This is ruin“It’s like I tell you to go down a path and I know that halfway there is an abyss through which you are going to fall,” he resigns.
Among his complaints, a request to all Spaniards who every morning drink a glass of milk that has come from the hands of a farmer or consume the olive oil that Félix, every day from six in the morning, obtains from his olive growers. : look at supermarket labels and buy spanish productand that they support them: the future of the field depends on it.
