Eduardo González
The Spanish Embassy in Paris is waiting to receive complaints from Spanish wine companies that were affected on October 19 by an attack by French winegrowers who blocked Spanish trucks and spilled the cargo they were transporting to protest against imports of Spanish wine.
“The Government of Spain has maintained constant contact with the Government of France in relation to the events that occurred at the Le Boulou tollbooth on October 19,” the Government stated on December 7 in response to a parliamentary question by writing by MP Pablo Hispán Iglesias de Ussel, from the Popular Group, about the “assault by around 500 French winegrowers of several trucks with agricultural products from Spain next to the Le Boulou tollbooth, near the Spanish border, in the south of France ”.
The Spanish Executive, it continued, “is in contact, through sectoral organizations, with the Spanish companies in the wine sector affected by these events, which must file a complaint with the French authorities and send a copy to the Embassy of Spain in Paris so that the file can be monitored from Embassy.”
“The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has undertaken to compensate for the losses suffered,” the Government continued. “For now, the Spanish Embassy in Paris has not received copies of the complaints presented by the companies, so there is no detailed knowledge of the economic value derived from the acts of vandalism against Spanish companies on October 19,” it said. “The French authorities informed the Spanish Embassy in Paris that there were four trucks affected, two for fruits and vegetables, one for bulk wine and another for bottled wine,” it added.
Likewise, according to the parliamentary response, “from the beginning of the demonstration, the French and Spanish authorities were in constant contact to ensure that the demonstration was dissolved and, therefore, the prefect of the department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, where the concentration took place, met, as quickly as possible, with the leaders of the demostration and managed to get them to abandon the toll and stop the acts of vandalism.” “This prefect was at all times in contact with the Spanish consul in Perpignan,” it assured. “For its part, the Spanish Embassy in Paris maintained constant communication with the French Ministries of Agriculture and the Interior throughout the morning to accelerate these negotiations,” it added.
“It is necessary to highlight, finally, that, after October 19, there have been new demonstrations by winegrowers where there has been a large police presence from the French authorities, which has prevented new overflows,” it concluded.
Winegrowers in the south of France had called for demonstrations to demand financial aid for the regional wine industry, which has suffered poor harvests due to weather conditions. The Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG) has called for “severe” sanctions against the French Government and against the farmers who attacked the Spanish trucks. Furthermore, it has demanded that the European Union guarantee “effectively and forcefully” the free circulation of Spanish agricultural production in French territory and has demanded that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food present a formal complaint to the French Government about these events.
