Farmers block the C-14 for the second time, putting Ordeig in a tight spot.

Tàrrega, Lleida — Sixty people and thirty tractors blocked the C-14 highway at Tàrrega for four hours yesterday, in the second blockade of the same road in less than a week. The protest, called by farming organizations Asaja, Unió de Pagesos, and Joves Agricultors, was no warning: it was an ultimatum. While the Catalan Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, sits down to negotiate today in Montblanc, farmers have already announced new blockades for next weekend on the C-12 near Maials. Today’s meeting is not a dialogue, but the last chance for the Catalan government to show whether it is willing to govern or merely to promise.

Second blockade on the C-14: the countryside no longer believes in words

The blockade of the C-14 took place between 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM on Thursday, as confirmed by Segre. The Mossos d’Esquadra diverted traffic along alternative routes, preventing major disruptions, but the message was clear: farmers are prepared to bring the province to a standstill if the regional government does not act. This is no impromptu mobilization. It is the second time in seven days that farmers have blocked this road, a key artery for the Urgell district.

Asaja president Pere Roqué was blunt before the media: “We don’t want more meetings, we want solutions.” And he added a warning that sounded like a verdict: “If we don’t get what we ask for, we will mobilize again next week.” Roqué’s words are no rhetoric. Behind them lies a grassroots base weary of broken promises and an administration that, they allege, sidesteps the core issue.

The demands: rabbits, SPAs, and a crisis plan that never comes

The farmers’ demands are concrete and measurable. First, they call for an urgent action plan to curb the overpopulation of rabbits and other game species that are devastating crops. This is no minor problem: rabbit plagues have surged in recent years, especially in the Urgell, Segarra, and Pla d’Urgell districts, where damage to cereals and fruit trees runs into millions of euros.

Second, they demand economic compensation for crop losses. This claim clashes with the lack of specific budget from the regional government, which has so far responded with generic, slow-to-process aid.

But the thorniest issue is the demand for a meeting with the Department of Territory to address the management of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for birds. Josep Maria Pijuan of Unió de Pagesos was very clear: “We haven’t heard a word from them. We hope they step up and stop dodging the SPA problem.” The reference to Territory is key: they are responsible for environmental planning which, according to farmers, prevents the application of wildlife control measures in protected areas. It’s a conflict pitting agricultural production against conservation policies, one that the Catalan government has left unresolved for years.

The Montblanc meeting: an ultimatum, not a negotiation

Today’s meeting in Montblanc with Minister Ordeig is therefore no negotiating table. It is a test. The farmers arrive with their demands on the table and convinced that, without concrete answers, they will return to the roads. And it won’t just be the C-14: they have already called for blockades on the C-12 near Maials for next Friday and Sunday, as reported by Segre.

Ordeig, who took office in the latest reshuffle of Salvador Illa’s government, faces his first major trial by fire. Until now, his department has kept a low profile, offering generic statements about the need for “dialogue” and “seeking consensus-based solutions.” But farmers are no longer content with words. They want an action plan with dates, a budget, and those responsible.

The context: an agricultural crisis that goes beyond rabbits

Behind these mobilizations lies a structural crisis that runs far deeper than rabbits. The primary sector in Lleida has been grappling with years of shrinking profitability, soaring production costs, recurring drought, and a bureaucratic burden that suffocates family farms. The SPAs are just the tip of the iceberg: farmers denounce that environmental restrictions are imposed without compensation or prior dialogue, and that the regional government prioritizes wildlife protection over the survival of farms.

Catalan independence advocates, who for years have used the countryside as an identity banner, have been unable to offer real solutions. The farmers blocking roads today are not radicals or anti-establishment: they are citizens who have watched their crops fail, their incomes dwindle, and their grievances ignored. And they have decided they will wait no longer.

Final reflection: solutions or tractor protests

The Montblanc meeting is not a turning point, but a mirror in which the Catalan government must look at itself. If Ordeig emerges from the meeting with a firm commitment, a funded action plan, and a date to sit down with the Department of Territory, the Lleida countryside may get a reprieve. If, instead, the minister once again hides behind vague “dialogue,” the tractor protests will once again paralyze the province’s roads.

The people of Lleida, who already suffer traffic disruptions and watch the countryside—the economic engine of the region—sink, deserve a government that actually governs. No more promises, no more empty meetings. Either the Catalan government acts decisively, or the tractors will occupy the roads until it does. Patience, in the Lleida countryside, has run out.