The A64 motorway blocked by angry farmers near Carbonne south of Toulouse on January 26, 2024 (AFP/Matthieu RONDEL)
The blockage by farmers of the A64 near Carbonne (Haute-Garonne) was completely lifted and this axis linking Toulouse to Bayonne reopened to traffic at 3:25 p.m., the prefecture announced in a press release.
“As they had committed to on Friday January 26 in the evening following the announcements of the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, the farmers freed the A64 motorway at Carbonne, today at 12 p.m.,” confirmed the prefecture of Haute-Garonne, after one of the spokespersons for the farmers on site told AFP in the morning that their dam was “almost finished and cleared”.
“Pierre-André Durand, prefect of the Occitanie region, prefect of Haute-Garonne, salutes the spirit of responsibility of the farmers, who notably carried out the cleaning of the section of motorway which was occupied,” added the press release, specifying: “At 3:25 p.m., the highway has just reopened in both directions.”
The Carbonne dam, about forty kilometers southwest of Toulouse, was the first of the farmers’ angry movement to be set up ten days ago.
“We have been heard, we have had some answers, everything will not be perfect straight away, we are not going to change French agriculture in five minutes under a motorway bridge but it seems to me that we have been really, really heard”, told AFP Joël Tournier, a grain farmer mobilized from the start on this dam, with his friend Jérôme Bayle, who has become a media figure in the movement.
“We have at least relaunched the debate on agriculture in France,” he added.
After announcing measures in favor of agriculture, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal came to the Carbonne dam on Friday evening, accompanied by Mr. Bayle.
In a huge crowd mixing farmers, journalists and onlookers, the two men walked around the scene of the blockage, until taking turns taking the microphone in front of the crowd, each perched on a bench.
“I only became the spokesperson, I only appeared on TV, because one was necessary, but frankly if I didn’t break down, it’s because in your looks, your determination, I knew that you would not let go of me”, declared the breeder who above all wanted to remember from this moment “the human adventure”.
“If we fought, it was to stop all this,” he said after Mr. Attal, showing the models dressed in work clothes symbolizing the suicides of the agricultural world, hanging from a bridge above above the highway.
The 42-year-old bearded farmer took over the family farm of 90 cows where he also practices mixed farming in Montesquieu-Volvestre (Haute-Garonne), after the suicide of his father around ten years ago.
© 2024 AFP
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