The president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau on Sunday called on farmers to “calm and determination” before a “week of all dangers”, warning that their mobilization remained “total” despite the announcements of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
While farmers promised to begin a “siege” of Paris on Monday, Mr. Rousseau, who was speaking on a dam installed on the A16 near Beauvais (Oise), also urged the government to “go much further far” to meet the demands of the profession.
Gérald Darmanin asked law enforcement officials to put in place “an important defensive system in order to prevent any blockage” by farmers of the Rungis market and Ile-de-France airports and “to prohibit any entry into Paris”. announced the Ministry of the Interior.
“We call on everyone to be calm and determined,” declared Mr. Rousseau, saying he did not want a tragedy like that of Pamiers (Ariège) where a farmer and her daughter were killed on Tuesday on a dam: “no question let there be other accidents.”
But he also warned that the sequence which opens was that of a “week of all dangers, either because the government does not hear us, or because the anger will be such that everyone will then take their responsibilities”.
“Our objective is not violence, nor to go for provocation, if some want to do it they will do it outside the framework which is ours”, then assured the president of the first French agricultural union.
Earlier on Sunday, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau professed “zero tolerance on violence and damage”, while expressing doubt that blocking road access to Paris would serve the “interests of farmers”.
“No one has any interest in this getting out of hand. We are responsible people”, but “there will be no spirit of retreat”, retorted Mr. Rousseau, also attacking the communication strategy of Gabriel Attal, who came to the field on Friday and Sunday .
“We didn’t cope well with what happened last week: the communications, the cameras, the straw bale and all that, it’s not our thing. What we need are decisions that we feel change the software,” quipped the boss of the FNSEA.
“The Prime Minister, traveling in Indre-et-Loire (Sunday morning Editor’s note), said + we understand that perhaps we need to go further +. I confirm to him, we must go much further,” he added: “until these demands are met, the mobilization will be total.”