(Paris) Angry French farmers determined to block major roads leading to Paris and other large cities, a government mobilizing 15,000 members of the police: the risk of rising tensions looms over the movement on Monday farmers.
From 2 p.m., the FNSEA unions and the Young Farmers of the Paris region and the north of France “begin a siege of the capital for an indefinite period”.
These majority organizations of the profession at the national level have planned eight “blocking points” on major highways a few kilometers or tens of kilometers from the Paris ring road.
Around Lyon (central-eastern France), mobilization should resume early Monday, according to the Rhône prefecture, which mentioned a snail operation coming from the Monts du Lyonnais then motorway blockages. The local branches of the FNSEA and the JA promised “ramifications throughout the region”.
“Secure” blocking points
For its part, the government announced that 15,000 members of the police would be mobilized on Monday to prevent tractors from entering “Paris and major cities”.
At the end of an interministerial crisis meeting, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin also announced a “moderation” requested from the police who should not “intervene at blocking points”. but “secure” them.
He explained that President Emmanuel Macron had given “instructions” to “guarantee that tractors do not go to Paris and large cities so as not to create extremely serious difficulties” and to ensure that Rungis, the most the country’s large international market for fresh produce, “can operate as well as the Parisian airports of Orly and Roissy”.
From the start of the evening, law enforcement officers, including gendarmerie armored vehicles, were deployed around Rungis, located south of Paris, noted an AFP journalist.
Back on the ground on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal vowed to “move quickly” to respond to the anger of farmers.
But Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the FNSEA, France’s leading agricultural union, urged the government to “go much further” and was ironic about Mr. Attal’s communication strategy.
“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,” Mr. Rousseau said on Sunday, facing farmers blocking the A16 motorway near Beauvais, north of Paris. .
Despite a lull, many road links remained cut on Sunday, from Normandy (north) to Gard (southeast), via the Pyrénées-Atlantiques (southwest) and the Meuse (east).
FDSEA from regions bordering the Paris region announced the participation of their members in the blockades around the capital with takeovers.
“Week of all dangers”
According to Mr. Rousseau, the sequence which opens is 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”. But he also called for “calm and determination”.
For his part, Mr. Attal conceded “that, through these first measures (announced on Friday, Editor’s note), we have not yet responded to everything that I have just mentioned and what constitutes the discomfort and the to be one of our farmers today.”
“And I am determined to move forward, move forward resolutely, move forward quickly,” declared the Prime Minister in La Riche, in Indre-et-Loire (central-west).
“I confirm to him, we must go much further,” replied Mr. Rousseau, who presented dozens of grievances to the government on Wednesday: “as long as these demands are not met, the mobilization will be total”.
Mr. Attal unveiled emergency measures on Friday, including the abandonment of the increase in the tax on non-road diesel (GNR), inflated compensation for breeders whose cattle have been affected by epizootic hemorrhagic disease, heavy sanctions against three agri-food manufacturers not respecting the Egalim laws on prices.