After the announcements of the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, Thursday 1er February, aimed at responding to the agricultural crisis, a large part of the blocking points were lifted on Friday, in accordance with the call from the FNSEA and Young Farmers (JA).
“The most visible moment of the crisis is clearly, given the instructions given by a certain number of unions, rather behind us, but the issues are still before us”recognized Friday morning on Europe 1 the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau.
Contrary to the FNSEA, the JA and the Rural Coordination, the Confédération paysanne, the third agricultural union, called on its members to continue the mobilization. According to a police source from Agence France-Presse, “a few rare points [de blocage] localized » thus wish “ continue until Saturday » And “isolated groups” hear “ hold until the Agricultural Show (February 24-March 3).” The Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, plans to visit Gard and Hérault on Friday evening “to present concrete measures” support for wine growers.
- Many farmers lift the barriers
After the FNSEA and the JA, Thursday, during a press conference by their president, Arnaud Rousseau and Arnaud Gaillot, the Rural Coordination also ” guest “ its members to ” to suspend ” their actions on Friday morning. “The farming world will remain mobilized in the run-up to the Agricultural Show and with the greatest vigilance regarding the progress expected at the national and European level”specifies the second agricultural union in a press release, Friday morning.
In the same tone, Mr. Rousseau wishes to see in the coming weeks the materialization of the measures announced by Mr. Attal. “If in the end we were not considered, or if it was all just a flash in the pan, we will do it again”he warned, explaining that “agricultural anger is transforming”.
Throughout the day, Friday, the blockages on the main roads were calmly dismantled by the farmers. In Hauts-de-France, all the roadblocks have been lifted and no action called by the regional section of the FNSEA is planned in the coming days, its president, Simon Ammeux, told AFP. “The ultimatum is given at the (Agricultural) Show”he warns, stressing that farmers will be “very, very vigilant” compliance with announcements.
In Occitania, the government’s announcements on Thursday led to the lifting – immediately or soon – of several dams, notably in Aveyron and Gers. “We are lifting the barriers above all because we have to return to work on the farms, after two weeks of historic mobilization. But, be careful, if the State takes us for goats, we will return to heavy-handed actions”warns Lionel Candelon, leader of Rural Coordination in the Gers.
The tractors also left the A9 motorway in Nîmes. In Yvelines, on the N12, the number of vehicles involved in the blockage has decreased significantly since Thursday evening, going from around twenty to seven tractors on Friday morning, according to the police. The blockades on the A4 and the A5 in Seine-et-Marne have been lifted. Around Lyon, « all points [de blocage] » were to be lifted on Friday at ” 14 hours “, informed the boss of the FRSEA, Michel Joux, to AFP. The convoy of tractors that left Agen on Monday, at the call of the Rural Coordination, to disrupt the activity of the Rungis wholesale market has taken the road towards the southwest.
- The Peasant Confederation calls for continued mobilization to defend “an income worthy of the name”
Contrary to the FNSEA, the JA and the Rural Coordination, the Peasant Confederation called, as of Thursday afternoon, to continue the mobilization with a demand: “A dignified income by prohibiting the purchase of our agricultural products below our cost price. » The third agricultural union, ranked on the left, had deplored in messages published on that Mr. Attal did “no concrete announcement on peasant income”while deploring “significant setbacks in terms of peasant autonomy”.
At the call of the union, around ten tractors and around forty demonstrators were still blocking the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier (Isère) toll on the A43 on Friday. “We have not obtained what we are fighting for: an income worthy of the name”explained to Agence France-Presse Isabelle Douillon, a farmer from the Rhône, deploring that “agroecological standards risk jumping because the FNSEA has achieved its goals” on the use of pesticides.
- The executive assumes having “paused” the Ecophyto plan
Among the measures announced by the Prime Minister on Thursday, that providing for the implementation ” on break “ of the application of the Ecophyto plan, which set a target of 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2030 (compared to 2015-2017), was widely criticized by elected environmentalists and environmental NGOs.
“France has chosen to act against reason, against history, against the ecological emergency”, notably castigated the NGO Agir pour l’environnement, in a press release on Friday. For the head of the Green list in the European elections, Marie Toussaint, it is “a poisoned gift to farmers”. For the “rebellious” MP for Seine-Saint-Denis, Clémentine Autain, this is an answer “to the logic of the FNSEA, but not to the interest of the majority of farmers, and certainly not to the interest of the French for their health”.
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According to government spokesperson, Prisca Thevenot, this pause can be explained by the desire of the executive to “ move away from punitive ecology to be in an ecology of solutions”. For the latter, the successive plans put in place since 2009 to reduce the use of pesticides “were ineffective”, because “they didn’t offer any solutions to support farmers”.