(Paris) French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal must announce on Friday first measures to respond to farmers who have been demonstrating for a week and plan to increase the pressure a notch by blocking major access to Paris, in addition to roadblocks throughout the country.
Faced with his first serious crisis since his appointment, Gabriel Attal must go to farmers to make “concrete proposals for simplification measures”, accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau.
The head of government is expected in Haute-Garonne, where the first highway blockade began a week ago, to speak with farmers on a cattle farm.
The head of the Renaissance parliamentary group (pro-government), Sylvain Maillard, promised “strong announcements” to “unblock the situation”.
In the meantime, new tractor and straw bale blockades were set up at dawn on major roads.
And are now directly targeting the capital: the majority agricultural union FNSEA plans to install roadblocks at five toll booths on highways leading to Paris from 2 p.m. local time.
Friday morning, the A1 motorway, a major axis linking the capital to northern Europe, was already closed to traffic, causing significant difficulties.
” In the time ”
Nearly 400 kilometers on an axis going from the south of Lyon to Spain have already been closed at the request of the authorities, indicated the company Vinci Autoroutes.
“The movement is long-term,” warns Olivier Lelièvre, beet and corn producer, also mobilized at a dam.
Met in multiple places in France, the farmers have various demands, depending on whether they are poultry breeders hit by avian flu last year, wine growers whose wines sell less, organic growers with vegetables shunned by the French, or large cereal growers, like Thierry Cazemajou, who grows sweet corn and green beans for a major canned brand in Sigalens in Gironde.
For him, “GNR (non-road diesel) is really a priority, an essential reduction: we should go back to 80 cents excluding taxes whereas we buy it at 1.20 euros, it’s urgent, that lead! »
Others want a minimum price for their products, or the payment of long-overdue aid or compensation, or even a moratorium on the ban on pesticides, as recently requested by the FNSEA. Some of the 140 demands put forward by the majority union require a law or European negotiations.
Across the country, demonstrators attacked state symbols and supermarkets on Thursday, giving the image of radicalizing anger.
Without intervention from the police at this stage, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, considered that the farmers did not attack the police or the gendarmes, and did not set fire to public buildings.
In Agen, demonstrators dumped tires, plastic, crates and manure in front of the station, while another team blocked the tracks. A wild boar was hanged in front of a Labor Inspectorate building.
For Charles Demeyer, endive producer in the North, “by bringing France to a standstill like that, maybe we will have answers”.
And ecology?
The Ministers of Agriculture and the Economy were to lead a committee to monitor commercial negotiations between large retailers and their suppliers, intended to protect producers’ income.
The demonstrations also brought to the forefront the projects for free trade agreements, in particular between the European Union and Mercosur, which bring together commercial powers from South America, and which are opposed by a large part of the class French politics.
In France, food imports are increasing, sometimes without having the same standards on pesticides for example.
While farmers are also mobilized in Germany, Belgium, Poland and Switzerland, the movement is popular in France, but not all unions are calling for slashing environmental standards.
The Peasant Confederation, 3e representative union, classified on the left, offers solutions very different from those of the FNSEA, Young Farmers and Rural Coordination unions.
Environmental NGOs and elected officials are alarmed by calls to loosen the rules on water or pesticides.
Environmentalist MEP Marie Toussaint regretted on France Bleu Poitou radio that “when the FNSEA asks for something, the end of legislation on pesticides, […] “If we go slower on the ecological transition, the government constantly gives in.”
According to her, we must instead “take out the checkbook” to help farmers.