The countryside takes Madrid again: Five columns of tractors protest against Mercosur and CAP cuts

The streets of downtown Madrid roared again with the sounds of five columns of tractors, with 500 vehicles, accompanied by thousands of farmers from all over Spain. Called by Unión de Uniones and Unaspi (National Union of Independent Primary Sector Associations), the protesters denounced what they consider a "death sentence" for the Spanish countryside: the trade agreement with Mercosur and the new cuts in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). From early in the morning, about 500 tractors (although the organization had requested authorization for 1,500 that were not granted) entered the city divided into five columns coming from Guadalajara, Arganda del Rey, Robregordo, El Espinar, and Torrejón de la Calzada. The mobilization, which took place under intermittent rain and a large police deployment of more than 1,800 officers, had its epicenter in Plaza de Colón. From there, a tide of people on foot, followed by the line of agricultural vehicles, traveled along Paseo de Recoletos ...