{"id":4755,"date":"2026-02-23T16:39:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=4755"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:39:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:39:42","slug":"manifesting-part-deux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/manifesting-part-deux\/","title":{"rendered":"Manifesting Part Deux"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It turns out that french farmers <\/a>aren’t the only ones protesting the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To recap: EU-Mercosur <\/a>is a free trade agreement that kills tariffs between the signatories, imposes minimum imports quotas on goods like Argentinian\/Brazilian beef and includes a bunch of other regulations. The farmers all hate it. The wine producers are tentatively for it. Environmentalists and human rights activists are very much against it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal was ratified by EU member states in January, but the EU parliament kicked it over to the European court of justice. So, who knows if\/when it will actually go into effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposition in France to the Mercosur agreement is widespread and nearly universal, btw. Even though it includes penalties for labeling any old south american sparkling wine as “champagne.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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When we were in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, we saw a farmers’ protest against Mercosur from a distance. And then, a few days later, we got up close and personal with another rolling farmers’ protest in Madrid. This one was also comprised of tractors and other heavy equipment. There were literally hundreds of tractors<\/a>. Most of them had decked out their rides with protest signs and were flying flags from all of the different regions in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Sadly, our friend noticed one fascist flag, but at least it was just one among dozens.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protest in Madrid might have been a little too<\/em> up close and personal. Our bus took an unexpected turn, as the street we were supposed to go down was completely blocked off. We enjoyed the site of dozens of tractors parading across from us before realizing, oh shit, where are we going now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our friends asked the busdriver and it turns out he didn’t know either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the driver let us off by the side of the road and we had an extra half hour to walk back and meet up with Kristian and Lilian. Let’s just call it the scenic route. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was impressed with how unbothered everyone seemed to be about the rolling traffic jam. I guess it’s just too hard to get mad at a tractor whose horn is playing “la cucaracha.” (Other tractor songs included Venga Bus, Sandstorm, and the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean). For the most part, everyone waved at the farmers and gave them thumbs up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We went to the Prado later that day and walked out just in time to watch the culmination of the rolling tractor protest (the Ministry of Agriculture is right across the street). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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