Extremely organized and highly influential, French farmers have been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by what they see as a mix of low farmgate prices, green regulations and free-trade policies.
As in many other European nations, disruptive protests broke out in the southwest of France, and spread across the country.
French farmers blocked highways in their second week of swelling protests, moving ever closer to Paris, where they are expected to arrive today (26).
They say the protests will continue until their demands are met.
Reuters reported:
“‘All possibilities are still on the table’, Arnaud Gaillot, the head of the Young Farmers (Jeunes Agriculteurs) union told journalists when asked about reports farmers could start to disrupt traffic in Paris as soon as Friday. […] Asked when the protesters would lift roadblocks, Gaillot said to ask [Prime Minister] Attal: ‘It is he who holds the key’.”
The protest rapidly developed into a major crisis to be handled by inexperienced new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
“French intelligence services have warned the government that regional farming unions have called on their members to converge on the capital, Le Parisien newspaper and BFM TV said.”
While Attal will announce concrete proposals today, farmers are using bales of hay and tractors to block highways across France. On the southwestern outskirts of Paris, dozens of tractors led a ‘go-slow’ disrupting the morning rush-hour.
Behind in the polls, President Emmanuel Macron worries that that farmers will help the rightwing parties. Conservative Marine Le Pen criticized the government for backing European regulations that hurt farmers.
“‘Emmanuel Macron addresses farmers with a hand on the shoulder and then knifes them in the back in Brussels‘, Le Pen told reporters. ‘The farmers’ worst enemies can be found in this government’, she added.”
But the left also wants in on the ‘fun’: second-largest CGT trade union called for joining forces with the farmers in a broader social front against Macron.
“Agricultural diesel was set to get more expensive as subsidies were removed, farmers were facing an extra €47 million per year in fees for water consumption and they say complicated regulations have made it difficult to know what they can or cannot do.
They also object to bans on pesticides and herbicides driven by the EU’s Green Deal and a new EU-wide treaty that could see the import of more Brazilian and Argentinian beef. Farmers claim competing with these countries is extremely hard as they aren’t bound by strict rules on animal welfare.”
And now the mounting pressure arrives in the ‘city of love’, Paris.
‘The determination is total’, said Arnaud Rousseau, the [National Federations of Farmer’s Syndicates] president. ‘We expect urgent measures’.”
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