Blocking of the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier toll, in Isère, on the A43 by farmers on February 2, 2023 (AFP/JEFF PACHOUD)
After the voluntary lifting of most of the roadblocks of farmers in France, the police on Saturday evacuated the last two blockades of the Confédération paysanne, a union classified on the left which had not followed the majority union FNSEA in the call to suspend actions after announcements from Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
The blockage at the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier toll (Isère), on the A43, as well as that of the Leclerc purchasing center in Saint-Etienne-de-Montluc (Loire-Atlantique) were calmly evacuated, the union and the prefectures concerned told AFP.
Blocking of the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier toll, in Isère, on the A43 by farmers on February 2, 2023 (AFP/JEFF PACHOUD)
“We are being evacuated by the police, who came with great resources. We are being evacuated even though we were completely peaceful,” lamented Jean-François Guitton, secretary general of the Loire-Atlantique Peasant Confederation, specifying that “there is not a trace left” of the passage of some 80 demonstrators.
The site was evacuated “due to disturbances to public order and the risk of shortages and losses of fresh products”, according to the Loire-Atlantique prefecture. “An individual nevertheless rebelled and was arrested for contempt and rebellion.”
The Peasant Confederation was outraged by “the government’s choice to treat mobilizations and trade union organizations differently”, in a press release. Throughout the movement, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had given instructions to the police and gendarmes to let the roadblocks and farmers’ actions take place, unless they tried to get closer to Rungis or Paris.
If the government responded to the “personal interests of speculative agri-managers” of the FNSEA, nothing has been resolved on the central question of farmers’ “income”, believes the union.
In Isère, the evacuation of the A43 toll, one of the last axes still obstructed in the region on Saturday morning, allowed the resumption of traffic between Lyon and Chambéry.
“The demonstrators evacuated the scene calmly, there was a dialogue between demonstrators and the police,” a spokesperson for the Isère prefecture told AFP. The toll has been occupied since Tuesday by around ten tractors and around forty people.
The demonstrators wanted to “go out with dignity and singing,” said Isabelle Douillon, a farmer from Rhône. Around “fifty gendarmes” were deployed, everything happened “in calm and serenity”, she added.
– Actions against hypermarkets –
The A43 and SCA West roadblocks were the last two held by the Confédération paysanne, according to a spokesperson for this agricultural union, a minority behind the FNSEA, the Young Farmers and the Rural Coordination.
The “Conf'” was the last union to have called for continued mobilization this weekend and next week, to denounce the government’s agricultural policy and demand greater measures on remuneration.
Smaller actions continue: a Leclerc supermarket was, for example, blocked on Saturday in Brignoles (Var).
Large supermarkets are also persistent targets of farmers, who accuse them of squeezing prices or selling foreign products.
In Chinon and Loches, in Indre-et-Loire, some farmers dumped manure in front of two Leclerc hypermarkets at the initiative, this time, of the FDSEA 37 and Young Farmers (JA). Supervised by the police, the farmers also checked the origin and labeling of the products.
The FNSEA and the JA were the first on Thursday to call for suspending the blockades on Thursday after a press conference by Gabriel Attal. The blockages began to be lifted in the following hours, sometimes with significant quantities of waste.
At noon on Saturday, only the A10 remained blocked on the Vinci Autoroutes network between Saint-Maixent and Poitiers according to the motorway concessionaire.
Since Monday, the government has promised a total package of 400 million euros to farmers and announced the “pause” of the Ecophyto pesticide reduction plan, provoking the anger of environmentalist organizations and elected officials.
FNSEA and JA gave the government until the Agricultural Show (February 24-March 3, in Paris) to make its announcements a reality. They are also asking for a law by June.
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© 2024 AFP
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