Much of the Vega Baja woke up on Tuesday morning as dozens of tractors were mobilised across the region for demonstrations in both San Isidro and in Murcia city.
The peaceful protests were organised by individual farmers, independently of agricultural organizations and associations.
In the Vega Baja, in the Polígono La Granadina de San Isidro, there was a concentration from the early hours of the morning, with tractors carrying Spanish flags and with a black ribbon as a sign of their symbolic mourning for the countryside. Many banners were also on display saying “pita por el campo” or “In the Levante, without the water transfer and unemployment.”
The reasons that have led the farmers of Vega Baja to mobilise are, in addition to the precarious situation of water, are the unfair price competition that “is drowning us” with a multitude of imports that are undercutting the local prices.
At the San Isidro concentration there was a considerable Civil Guard monitoring the farmers with the demonstration passing without incident.
A further 50 tractors left at 5 in the morning from Catral and Orihuela in a procession towards Murcia with the aim of gathering at a meeting point in the city centre. The participants had been invited by Murcian farmers.
However, they were detained by the Civil Guard at the entrances to Murcia because “they assure us that there was no authorisation for the protest,” Anel Ñíguez, a farmer from Catral, told Radio Orihuela Cadena SER.
The tractors, nevertheless, backed up along to roads and as such, the accesses to Murcia were were brought to a standstill with it becoming practically impossible to reach the centre of the city.
