There were several dozen of them, around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, storming the union stand at the Agricultural Show, dressed in white gauze coveralls, with the “lobby busters” logo plastered on the back. .
Their mission: to “decontaminate” speech and reflection on agriculture, and to offer an alternative narrative to the “majority discourse”, here with large strokes of orange paint rather than polite exchanges.
“Give us back the land!” Let’s put an end to the grip of the FNSEA, let’s create resilience”, sang Extinction Rebellion activists, some standing with raised fists, others seated and chained by the neck in clusters of three – “to be hard to dislodge” .
About fifteen had quickly reached the floor of the stand where some executives and employees of the FNSEA were lunching. Furious, some trade unionists tried to repel the activists, briefly coming to blows, under the cameras of some journalists.
Law enforcement on site
“We are here to block the FNSEA, which blocks any initiative towards agroecological transition, more sustainable for farmers, the land and our health”, explained to the press “Victoire”, 35 years old and mother of two children.
“The intensive agricultural model defended by the FNSEA wreaks social havoc – a quarter of farmers live below the poverty line – health and ecological havoc, by saturated the soil and water with pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers, factors of collapse of biodiversity and massive emissions of greenhouse gases,” she explained.
In the aisles, cries and broken dishes caught the eye. Quickly a crowd of onlookers gathered around the stand of the FNSEA, which proclaimed in green letters “Agriculture, a chance for France”.
“But what do they have to be against meat?” They are swollen to come here, ”says a passerby. “No, it’s against pesticides,” explains his companion.
Dispatched to the scene, the police deployed a large security perimeter. Some activists end up agreeing to be escorted out of the exhibition grounds, some remaining with the certainty of ending up in police custody. “We share,” they explain. The objective being to block the stand as long as possible.
“They ransacked everything. Is this dialogue? breathes Christine Claudon, director of communication for the union, still “shocked” by “this violence”.
Two steps away, the activists chained to the ground have taken out their pocket books and are reading while waiting to be evacuated. The FNSEA is preparing to file a complaint, its first vice-president, Arnaud Rousseau, told AFP.