Blockades were lifted and traffic resumed on Saturday January 27 on most of the blocked roads and highways, but farmers, far from being all satisfied with the government’s announcements, are wondering about the follow-up to their movement.
Farmers from the FNSEA and Young Farmers (JA) from the greater Paris basin will begin a “siege of the capital” on Monday January 29, the two unions, which represent the majority of the profession at the national level, announced Saturday evening.
“From Monday January 29 at 2 p.m. farmers from the departments: Aisne, Aube, Eure, Eure
Saturday mid-afternoon, the Lot-et-Garonne Rural Coordination announced “to go to Paris” from Monday morning to “block [the] Rungis market”.
The movement remains diffuse, with situations varying locally across France, and farmers divided between those who believe they have obtained satisfaction and others who wish to relaunch the movement after a break.
In the South, the A9 motorway “has been reopened over most of its route,” Vinci Autoroutes announced in a press release. But it remains cut off in the Gard.
On the side of the A64 motorway at Carbonne (Haute-Garonne), the first farmers’ barrier to have been installed ten days ago, the blockage was completely lifted, and this axis linking Toulouse to Bayonne was reopened at traffic at 3:25 p.m. “We were heard, we had some answers”, even if “everything will not be perfect straight away”, judged Joël Tournier, one of the spokespersons for the movement in Carbonne, with the breeder Jérôme Bayle.
Farmers must lift the last barrier in Bouches-du-Rhône in the evening, the department’s prefect, Christophe Mirmand, told Agence France-Presse (AFP), announcing a series of local discussions on topics like water management or the sector’s needs for foreign labor.
The mobilization was mourned on Tuesday by the accidental death of a farmer and her daughter on a dam in Pamiers (Ariège). On Saturday, several thousand people took part in a white march in this city organized in their memory. “There is a considerable crowd (…) solidarity and emotion have gone beyond Ariège and the world of agriculture,” declared Philippe Lacube, president of the Ariège Chamber of Agriculture.
To try to put an end to the rising revolt in the countryside where many are no longer able to make a living from their profession, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, unveiled emergency measures on Friday in Occitania, the cradle of the protest. “We won’t let you go,” he said.
He thus acceded to some of the most pressing demands of the demonstrators, with the abandonment of the increase in the tax on non-road diesel (GNR), inflated compensation for breeders affected by MHE cattle disease, heavy sanctions against three agri-food manufacturers not respecting EGalim laws on prices. The measures “are expected to be applied to other subjects,” promised the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, on Saturday.
“What was said this evening does not calm the anger, we must go further,” said the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, on Friday. The Peasant Confederation, for its part, wants to “continue mobilization” to obtain “structural measures”. “People are exasperated by the fact that these are not the announcements we expected,” Lucie Delbarre, general secretary of the FDSEA of Pas-de-Calais, said on Saturday. “We have a state that doesn’t care about its farmers. We can see it clearly, it’s a pressure cooker ready to explode. »
In Narbonne, a building of the Mutualité sociale agricole (MSA) was set on fire Friday afternoon on the sidelines of a farmers’ demonstration, while in Nîmes, a customs office and eight vehicles were burned. .
