The Pyrénées-Orientales prefecture has announced the end of the blockades on the A9 motorway. "The blockade on A9 in the Spain to France direction is over, and traffic will gradually resume." At the call of Coordination Rurale, nearly 200 farmers from the Pyrénées-Orientales department, joined by delegations from the Aude and Hérault, blocked the French-Spanish border at the Boulou toll barrier. In the wake of the national mobilization initiated by FNSEA against the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement, the farmers are once again denouncing the situations of regulatory over-transposition and distortion of competition.
© Coordination Rurale
"We are going to block them, but we will not empty them"
At midday on Tuesday, farmers reached the Boulou toll plaza on the A9 motorway to block lorries arriving from Spain. The blockade continued throughout the night until Wednesday morning. "We are going to block them, but we will not empty them," explained Philippe Maydat, president of Coordination Rurale 66, to French newspaper L' Indépendant. The aim is to get what we were promised. At the start of the year, we held large-scale demonstrations and we were told that we were "heard and understood." But after a year, nothing has changed, and we are still at the same point today. We do not want to become an endangered species."
Activity at the Saint-Charles market severely disrupted
The farmers' aim was to "block food freight" from Spain and therefore the Saint-Charles multimodal hub. According to Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, president of the agricultural union Coordination Rurale 47 and president of the Lot-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture, "this is where all the fruit and vegetables from Spain are centralized before being sent off to the rest of Europe. They are all sulphated with products that we cannot use on our hazelnuts." On Wednesday morning, Cyril Gornes, manager of the Saint-Charles international market, told L'Indépendant that they had not received any lorries, as "even the secondary network is closed to heavy goods vehicles."
8.14pm: on #A9, the motorway is cut off towards Lyon after junction 43 at Le Boulou due to demonstrations. #InfoTrafic (1/2) pic.twitter.com/xjG4bMUVYR
- Autoroute A9 (@A9Trafic) November 19, 2024
Truck blockade lifted at lunchtime Wednesday
Although the farmers had initially planned a blockade lasting several days, the departmental prefecture announced the end of the blockades by lunchtime on Wednesday and a gradual return of traffic. According to newspaper L'Indépendant, the reason for this was a lack of mobilization and support.
Philippe Maydat, president of Coordination Rurale 66 was "disappointed that the other unions did not join." According to the newspaper, the farmers then headed for the prefecture, where a delegation was due to be received by the prefect.
Index photo: © Vinci Autoroutes