Farmers block the A6 highway with their tractors near Longjumeau, south of Paris, January 30, 2024 (AFP/JULIEN DE ROSA)
Farmers’ tractors are approaching Paris, Lyon and the Rungis wholesale market on Wednesday, despite attempts by the executive to dispel peasant unease and convince demonstrators to cease their mobilization, in particular via renegotiations in Brussels.
Wednesday morning around Lyon, the tractors continue their progress to surround the third city in France: after the blocking Tuesday evening of part of the motorway to the west, the A89, portions of the motorways in other directions ( A46, A42 and A47) will also be “quickly” cut at the start of the morning, regional boss of the FNSEA Michel Joux told AFP.
Further north, the convoy of angry farmers who left the South-West at the call of the Rural Coordination set off again a little before 8:00 a.m. towards Rungis, the enormous wholesale food market which supplies Paris, noted AFP. The farmers, on board some 200 to 300 tractors, spent the night on a farm in Loir-et-Cher between Vierzon and Orléans.
After being blocked several times by the police, the convoy remains closely monitored. Armored vehicles are on the A6.
There are “more than 100 blocking points” and 10,000 demonstrators in France on Wednesday, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, told France 2. “They are not attacking the police, they are do not enter Rungis, they do not enter Parisian airports, not in Paris. But if they ever had to do it, obviously I repeat, we would not let it happen,” he said.
“The objective is to dialogue to provide a certain number of concrete answers, and not find ourselves in a situation of blockade,” added the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, announcing that the government was investing 80 million euros of additional aid on the table for winegrowers and that it would cover “loan interest for the year 2024” to relieve the cash flow of winegrowers in difficulty.
Mr. Fesneau is expected in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon “for a series of interviews aimed at accelerating the treatment of European emergencies”.
In total in Ile-de-France, eight motorways are affected by blockages and partial closures, according to the traffic monitoring site Sytadin.
And several other major traffic routes in the regions – notably around Orange, Nîmes, Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Grenoble – are affected in places by filter dams, blockages or demonstrations. In Nantes, the Cheviré bridge is blocked.
Farmers block the A6 motorway, near Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris, January 30, 2024 (AFP/JULIEN DE ROSA)
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal assured Tuesday that there must “be a French agricultural exception” and promised that the government would be “there, without any ambiguity” to respond to the current agricultural crisis, in his general policy speech before the National Assembly.
Despite these declarations, accompanied by some new measures, and outlines of concessions in Brussels, mobilization is not weakening, particularly on the issue of fallow land.
– “No long-term perspective” –
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal at the National Assembly after delivering his general policy speech, January 30, 2024 in Paris (AFP/EMMANUEL DUNAND)
The demonstrators reacted with skepticism, like Johanna Trau, cereal grower and breeder in Ebersheim (Bas-Rhin), regarding the payment announced for March of CAP aid. “Already some measures take three or four years to be applied… Here I ask to see!”, she declared Tuesday in a convoy of hundreds of tractors blocking the A35.
Farmers next to a fire during a blockage of the A6 motorway near Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris, January 30, 2024 (AFP/JULIEN DE ROSA)
The Confédération paysanne, the 3rd agricultural union, classified on the left, called for “blocking the purchasing centers” of large-scale distribution. On Wednesday morning, it notably indicated that it had installed a filter barrier in front of a Carrefour purchasing center in the Toulouse suburbs, and also blocked the Leclerc fresh produce logistics platform in Cabannes in Bouches-du-Rhônes which normally serves around 70 stores.
“We want large retailers and manufacturers to share their margins as best as possible and to pay farmers the right price,” Laurent Thérond, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne du Vaucluse, told AFP.
President Emmanuel Macron, during a state visit to Sweden, for his part pledged to defend several demands of French farmers in Brussels, on Ukraine, fallow land and the trade agreement with Latin countries. Americans from Mercosur.
On Mercosur, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire promised Wednesday that France would engage in a “showdown” during the negotiations in Brussels so that this agreement “as it is today is not signed” because “as it is, it is not good for our breeders”.
Farmers block the A16 highway with their tractors near Isle-Adam, on January 30, 2024, one of the roadblocks installed on the main routes to Paris (AFP/Sameer Al-Doumy)
The movement of anger is in any case spreading across the continent: after demonstrations in Germany, Poland, Romania, Belgium and Italy in recent weeks, the major Spanish agricultural unions have announced “mobilizations” during the ” next weeks”.
Environmental associations were also critical, with Greenpeace estimating in particular that the executive “favors agro-industry to the detriment of farmers and the ecosystems on which they depend”.
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© 2024 AFP
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