Rhoda Wilson

Farmer protests have been taking place since Tuesday throughout Spain.  Yesterday they announced that would they take their protest to the Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid today.  The government has announced that they would deploy riot police to avoid farmers blocking roads as they had done for the previous four days.

Meanwhile, yesterday, social media users were widely sharing footage of police aggression towards protestors.  Many are claiming these are not the usual police officers but rather members of [the EU-run] Eurogendfor.

On the second day of the farmers’ protests, EuroNews reported that the protests, involving several thousand people on tractors and in other vehicles, had not been backed by Spain´s three main farming organisations  However,  they had called for separate protests in the coming days.

Farmers blocked roads across Spain for the third day running on Thursday with the main farmers’ unions joining the demonstrations.  France 24 reported that some of Thursday’s actions were organised by Spain’s three main farming unions Asaja, Coag and UPA.

“Some demonstrations deteriorated into scuffles when police moved in to remove roadblocks, prompting several arrests, with the interior ministry raising to 19 the total number detained since the start of the protests,” France 24 wrote.

Yesterday, the fourth day of blocking streets across the country, the protests centred around the northern cities of Oviedo, Pamplona and Zaragoza, with tractors clogging several city streets and commuter roads. In many places, farmers kept their protests going overnight, ABC News reported.

Meanwhile, on social media, on Friday the video below was being widely shared with people commenting that members of the Eurogendfor are being used against protestors.  For example, the video was shared on Twitter with the comment: “It’s being reported that the EU has deployed their European paramilitary police Eurogendfor, to crush the farmers in Granada.”

Other videos being shared also raise concerns about the deployment of Eurogendfor such as THIS tweet and the tweet below.

Another Twitter user suggests that the aggressive tactics used by police in the videos above are not the actions of the national police force.  The translation of the comment that accompanies the video below reads: “Murcia Spain, the police set up street blockades, which the farmers easily bypass. The Spanish police take little action and let them do their thing. Clearly whose side they are on. Eurogendfor, on the contrary, they do fight, so you can recognise the difference as a layman.”

For comparison to the unforms worn by police in the videos above, some on social media are sharing the image below taken from an article about Eurogendfor officers training the National Police of Ukraine (“NPU”) in 2016.  However, no description accompanies the image and it seems that the men in the image are NPU and not Eurogendfor officers.

We make this conclusion for two reasons. Firstly, the Ukranian emblem on their uniforms. Secondly, the article stated that four Eurogendfor officers went to Ukraine.  Another image in the same article shows about 15 similarly uniformed men in the background, which in the image below the majority are out of camera shot.

Participation of EUROGENDFOR in EUAM Ukraine public order training

Despite Eurogendfor clearly stating it is only deployed to stabilise crisis and conflict areas outside the European Union (see next section), if Eurogendfor has been deployed against the Spanish farmers, it would not be for the first time within the European Union.

In 2018, it was believed that Eurogendfor was deployed during a protest in France.  This is based on eyewitness accounts of the presence of armoured vehicles displaying the European Union flag or foreign emblems and some people seeing and recognising the Eurogendfor emblem – the blue weapon with the sword and the motto “Lex Paciferat” (English: The law makes peace).

A group of farmers announced plans yesterday to gather in Madrid for a Saturday protest near the headquarters of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (“PSOE”).

According to Europa Press, faced with the possibility of a “tractor rally” in front of PSOE headquarters, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has warned that “they are not going to allow” the protests with tractor drives and road blockades that have been taking place in several locations to reach the PSOE headquarters.

El Mundo reported that hundreds of Police Intervention Unit (“UIP”) officers, better known as riot police, will be deployed in Madrid and Valladolid to avoid the roadblocks announced for today, which will be the fifth day of the farmers’ protests.

The demonstrations are expected to continue over the coming weeks, with a major protest in Madrid planned for 21 February 2024.

There have been other protests in countries such as France, Poland and Greece in recent days. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, has already made concessions to farmers over the last few weeks on environmental rules, subsidies and exemptions, and this week decided to shelve plans to halve the use of pesticides.

Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib of Belgium, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said on Wednesday that the rules governing farming “need to be reassessed in the light of current realities”.

You can read live news updates about the protests in Spain on Europa Press HERE or El Mundo HERE.   The web pages are in Spanish with the option to translate.

What is Eurogendfor?

The European Gendarmerie Force (“EUROGENDFOR”) is a European rapid reaction force composed of elements of several European police and gendarmerie forces. Eurogendfor is tasked with performing policing duties within the scope of crisis management operations.  However, as its Twitter profile above states, these operations are for areas outside the European Union.

Its website states: “EUROGENDFOR is offered as an operational, pre-organised, robust and rapidly deployable asset, able to perform all police tasks. EUROGENDFOR can be put mainly at disposal of the EU, the UN, OSCE, NATO, and other international organisations or ad hoc coalitions.”

Officially the acronym for the organisation is written in capital letters, “EUROGENDFOR,” however, for ease of reading we have used the proper noun version, “Eurogendfor.”

The following are excerpts from an article titled ‘European Gendarmeries, From Their Origins to The European Gendarmerie Force’ published in The CoESPU Magazine, No. 4, 2020.

Gendarmeries were – unequivocally – established as police forces called to provide robust, professional solutions to increased requests for public security. Their personnel were mainly taken from the best elements of the armed forces, therefore offering discipline, professionalism and dedication. Since their establishment, gendarmeries continue to operate for and within the populace, offering an all-encompassing set of capacities, rooted in their military background. Such an approach proved to be easily applicable to deployments abroad, where populations are threatened before, during and after conflicts or crises.

The common grounds, traditions and experiences of European gendarmeries were then gathered together with the establishment of the European Gendarmerie Force (“EUROGENDFOR”). This initiative offers a police force with military status capable of performing all police (policing) tasks in conflict prevention, peace and humanitarian missions and in crisis management operations outside of the borders of the European Union, under any chain of command (either military or civilian).

Gendarmeries are police forces with a “military status,” mostly the ones following the model of the French Gendarmerie.

The “military status” grants gendarmerie forces the affiliation to both the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior. Some of the Eurogendfor gendarmerie forces are a standalone armed force, like the traditional ones, under the Ministry of Defence and the Defence General Staff, while others only respond to the Ministry of Interior. Whatever their hierarchical affiliation, when exerting civilian police duties, all of them fall under the functional authority of the Ministry of Interior.

The first formal step towards the setting up of the Eurogendfor was taken with the Declaration of Intent, agreed by France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain at the meeting of Ministers of Defence on 17 September 2004 in Noordwijk, Netherlands.

On 18 October 2007, the Treaty establishing Eurogendfor was signed in Velsen, the Netherlands. The five founding countries were joined by Romania and, later, by Poland. Turkey and Lithuania are also part of the organisation, respectively with observer and partner status.

The Eurogendfor force is defined in the Treaty of Velsen as: “The personnel of the police forces with military status assigned by the parties to Eurogendfor to fulfil a mission or an exercise, following the transfer of authority, and a limited number of other personnel designated by the Parties in an advisory or supporting role.”

To this effect, the Eurogendfor force is not a stand-by (or permanently assigned) force, since it is generated on an ad hoc basis depending on the type of mission to be performed.

Since its foundation, Eurogendfor has been deployed, under the aegis of the main international organisations, in various theatres of operations, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Haiti, Central African Republic, Libya, Niger, and Mali.

Via https://expose-news.com/2024/02/10/spain-riot-police-are-used-to-crush-farmers-protests/

Rhoda Wilson

Farmer protests have been taking place since Tuesday throughout Spain.  Yesterday they announced that would they take their protest to the Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid today.  The government has announced that they would deploy riot police to avoid farmers blocking roads as they had done for the previous four days.

Meanwhile, yesterday, social media users were widely sharing footage of police aggression towards protestors.  Many are claiming these are not the usual police officers but rather members of [the EU-run] Eurogendfor.

On the second day of the farmers’ protests, EuroNews reported that the protests, involving several thousand people on tractors and in other vehicles, had not been backed by Spain´s three main farming organisations  However,  they had called for separate protests in the coming days.

Farmers blocked roads across Spain for the third day running on Thursday with the main farmers’ unions joining the demonstrations.  France 24 reported that some of Thursday’s actions were organised by Spain’s three main farming unions Asaja, Coag and UPA.

“Some demonstrations deteriorated into scuffles when police moved in to remove roadblocks, prompting several arrests, with the interior ministry raising to 19 the total number detained since the start of the protests,” France 24 wrote.

Yesterday, the fourth day of blocking streets across the country, the protests centred around the northern cities of Oviedo, Pamplona and Zaragoza, with tractors clogging several city streets and commuter roads. In many places, farmers kept their protests going overnight, ABC News reported.

Meanwhile, on social media, on Friday the video below was being widely shared with people commenting that members of the Eurogendfor are being used against protestors.  For example, the video was shared on Twitter with the comment: “It’s being reported that the EU has deployed their European paramilitary police Eurogendfor, to crush the farmers in Granada.”

Other videos being shared also raise concerns about the deployment of Eurogendfor such as THIS tweet and the tweet below.

Another Twitter user suggests that the aggressive tactics used by police in the videos above are not the actions of the national police force.  The translation of the comment that accompanies the video below reads: “Murcia Spain, the police set up street blockades, which the farmers easily bypass. The Spanish police take little action and let them do their thing. Clearly whose side they are on. Eurogendfor, on the contrary, they do fight, so you can recognise the difference as a layman.”

For comparison to the unforms worn by police in the videos above, some on social media are sharing the image below taken from an article about Eurogendfor officers training the National Police of Ukraine (“NPU”) in 2016.  However, no description accompanies the image and it seems that the men in the image are NPU and not Eurogendfor officers.

We make this conclusion for two reasons. Firstly, the Ukranian emblem on their uniforms. Secondly, the article stated that four Eurogendfor officers went to Ukraine.  Another image in the same article shows about 15 similarly uniformed men in the background, which in the image below the majority are out of camera shot.

Participation of EUROGENDFOR in EUAM Ukraine public order training

Despite Eurogendfor clearly stating it is only deployed to stabilise crisis and conflict areas outside the European Union (see next section), if Eurogendfor has been deployed against the Spanish farmers, it would not be for the first time within the European Union.

In 2018, it was believed that Eurogendfor was deployed during a protest in France.  This is based on eyewitness accounts of the presence of armoured vehicles displaying the European Union flag or foreign emblems and some people seeing and recognising the Eurogendfor emblem – the blue weapon with the sword and the motto “Lex Paciferat” (English: The law makes peace).

A group of farmers announced plans yesterday to gather in Madrid for a Saturday protest near the headquarters of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (“PSOE”).

According to Europa Press, faced with the possibility of a “tractor rally” in front of PSOE headquarters, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has warned that “they are not going to allow” the protests with tractor drives and road blockades that have been taking place in several locations to reach the PSOE headquarters.

El Mundo reported that hundreds of Police Intervention Unit (“UIP”) officers, better known as riot police, will be deployed in Madrid and Valladolid to avoid the roadblocks announced for today, which will be the fifth day of the farmers’ protests.

The demonstrations are expected to continue over the coming weeks, with a major protest in Madrid planned for 21 February 2024.

There have been other protests in countries such as France, Poland and Greece in recent days. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, has already made concessions to farmers over the last few weeks on environmental rules, subsidies and exemptions, and this week decided to shelve plans to halve the use of pesticides.

Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib of Belgium, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said on Wednesday that the rules governing farming “need to be reassessed in the light of current realities”.

You can read live news updates about the protests in Spain on Europa Press HERE or El Mundo HERE.   The web pages are in Spanish with the option to translate.

What is Eurogendfor?

The European Gendarmerie Force (“EUROGENDFOR”) is a European rapid reaction force composed of elements of several European police and gendarmerie forces. Eurogendfor is tasked with performing policing duties within the scope of crisis management operations.  However, as its Twitter profile above states, these operations are for areas outside the European Union.

Its website states: “EUROGENDFOR is offered as an operational, pre-organised, robust and rapidly deployable asset, able to perform all police tasks. EUROGENDFOR can be put mainly at disposal of the EU, the UN, OSCE, NATO, and other international organisations or ad hoc coalitions.”

Officially the acronym for the organisation is written in capital letters, “EUROGENDFOR,” however, for ease of reading we have used the proper noun version, “Eurogendfor.”

The following are excerpts from an article titled ‘European Gendarmeries, From Their Origins to The European Gendarmerie Force’ published in The CoESPU Magazine, No. 4, 2020.

Gendarmeries were – unequivocally – established as police forces called to provide robust, professional solutions to increased requests for public security. Their personnel were mainly taken from the best elements of the armed forces, therefore offering discipline, professionalism and dedication. Since their establishment, gendarmeries continue to operate for and within the populace, offering an all-encompassing set of capacities, rooted in their military background. Such an approach proved to be easily applicable to deployments abroad, where populations are threatened before, during and after conflicts or crises.

The common grounds, traditions and experiences of European gendarmeries were then gathered together with the establishment of the European Gendarmerie Force (“EUROGENDFOR”). This initiative offers a police force with military status capable of performing all police (policing) tasks in conflict prevention, peace and humanitarian missions and in crisis management operations outside of the borders of the European Union, under any chain of command (either military or civilian).

Gendarmeries are police forces with a “military status,” mostly the ones following the model of the French Gendarmerie.

The “military status” grants gendarmerie forces the affiliation to both the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior. Some of the Eurogendfor gendarmerie forces are a standalone armed force, like the traditional ones, under the Ministry of Defence and the Defence General Staff, while others only respond to the Ministry of Interior. Whatever their hierarchical affiliation, when exerting civilian police duties, all of them fall under the functional authority of the Ministry of Interior.

The first formal step towards the setting up of the Eurogendfor was taken with the Declaration of Intent, agreed by France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain at the meeting of Ministers of Defence on 17 September 2004 in Noordwijk, Netherlands.

On 18 October 2007, the Treaty establishing Eurogendfor was signed in Velsen, the Netherlands. The five founding countries were joined by Romania and, later, by Poland. Turkey and Lithuania are also part of the organisation, respectively with observer and partner status.

The Eurogendfor force is defined in the Treaty of Velsen as: “The personnel of the police forces with military status assigned by the parties to Eurogendfor to fulfil a mission or an exercise, following the transfer of authority, and a limited number of other personnel designated by the Parties in an advisory or supporting role.”

To this effect, the Eurogendfor force is not a stand-by (or permanently assigned) force, since it is generated on an ad hoc basis depending on the type of mission to be performed.

Since its foundation, Eurogendfor has been deployed, under the aegis of the main international organisations, in various theatres of operations, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Haiti, Central African Republic, Libya, Niger, and Mali.

Via