Hundreds of tractors flood Barcelona as farmers back referendum
A COLUMN of tractors rolled into the streets of Barcelona as hundreds of farmers from Catalonia showed their support for tomorrow’s planned referendum on independence.
An estimated 700 tractors met the call of a small farmers’ union to drive their vehicles into Catalonia’s capital, where they could be used to barricade polling stations against police forces acting on court orders to prevent the referendum from taking place.
“We ask for all the tractors in the land to be parked in the vicinity of polling stations without hindering traffic or the carrying out of the vote […] but ready to move against any potential sabotage of the ballot”, the Assemblea Pagesa union said.
At noon yesterday hundreds of tractors flying pro-independence flags were parked outside the Spanish government’s delegation in the capital, blocking the central Mallorca Street.
“We will vote! We will vote!” farmers chanted.
Having converged on Barcelona from different parts of Catalonia, the cavalcade was expected to mass outside the regional government’s headquarters to show support for tomorrow’s referendum, before dispersing to park outside polling stations.
Catalonia’s courts have ordered the police to seize electoral material in order to prevent a ballot suspended by Spain’s constitutional court from being held.
Assemblea Pagesa’s Twitter feed and other social media sites posted photographs of tractors “defending” polling stations in towns across Catalonia. Another farmers’ union, Unió de Pagesos, announced its support for the tractor convoy “in defence of democracy and freedom after the arrests of political representatives, the de facto freezing of Catalonia’s selfrule and the violation of civil rights”.