A great caravan of 2,000 tractors has left this morning from different places around Catalonia in defence of Sunday's referendum, called by the main agricultural unions.
Ramon Lloses
A group of 400 vehicles, coming from the counties around Barcelona (Vallès Oriental, Vallès Occidental, Maresme, Alt Penedès, Garraf and Baix Llobregat) has arrived in the city, stopping near the building of the Delegation of the Spanish Government. There they were met by a large deployment of police.
Emotional scenes were seen among students when one of the caravans arrived at Plaça Universitat. One of the farmworkers shouted "this is the revolution of young people" to applause. As the tractors drove past, many pedestrians have spontaneously applauded them, some shouting "votarem" (we will vote).
Vídeo d'ara mateix a la #caputxinada2017, un pagès crida "aquesta és la revolta dels joves" seguit d'una multitud de tractors a la Gran Via! pic.twitter.com/inMooe6xmh
— Unis x the Republic (@unisxrepublica) 29 of September 2017
There is also a gathering of 500 tractors in Girona in front of the Spanish Treasury's delegation in the northern provincial capital. 150 vehicles from Bages county have done the same in front of the delegation in Manresa, meanwhile some 1,000 tractors from Alt Camp and Tarragonès counties have paraded to Tarragona. There was also a fifth gathering in Tortosa, in the very south of Catalonia, with 100 vehicles.
The tractors in Carrer Girona, Barcelona, the corner with Carrer Mallorca.
Tractors heading through Barcelona
At about 1:30pm, Unió de Pagesos (Farmworkers' Union) read a manifesto: "As a result of the call for the Catalan public to make a decision of great transcendence for the future of the country and the 1st October referendum campaign, we note the violation of civil rights in Catalonia with the disproportionate action of the Spanish government and of the justice system."
Video Translation: If I'm here today, it's thanks to all of you. Because my case, it's worth saying, is a little special. I could never ask my father how I should plough, I could never ask my grandfather if the work I was doing was done well because I started from zero. But thanks to you, who supported me, I could move forward and, today, just like you, I'm proud to say that I'm a farmer. And it's thanks to the solidarity of farmers, this solidarity that today has united us all, from all the unions, from all the organisations, here together. Freedom and democracy!