Lionel Gougelot / Photo credits: MATHILDE CYBULSKI / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 8:17 a.m., January 25, 2024

Farmers' blockades are increasing and extending to the four corners of the country this Thursday.

Among them, operators on the verge of ruin.

Forced to invest in their farms, in particular to meet regulatory and environmental requirements but also to modernize their farms, some fall into debt and are unable to earn a salary.

The executive is under more pressure than ever.

According to information from Europe 1, faced with the farmers' revolt, Gabriel Attal will announce a first series of measures on Friday, during a trip to the field.

But before that, the Prime Minister will receive the Ministers of Agriculture, Ecological Transition and the Economy this Thursday at Matignon.

Wednesday evening, the FNSEA, the majority union, presented its grievances.

Around sixty proposals, from reducing standards to providing emergency financial aid.

Because some farmers are on the verge of ruin, as evidenced by this farmer from Saint-Omer.

At 33, Alexis Mequignon simply can't cope anymore. 

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“I’ve been here for three and a half years and I still haven’t gotten a salary”

By taking over the family dairy farm and creating a Label Rouge poultry farm, Alexis invested 400,000 euros and repays 20,000 euros per year.

"I reimburse what is on the farm and there is always investment to make, equipment to change. We always tell ourselves that it's good, that it's going to be okay and finally, at the end of the day After all, a machine breaks and it needs to be changed. It's a gear. I've been here for three and a half years and I still haven't gotten a salary," he whispers.

“We just repay, repay, repay”

Alexis does not pay himself a salary and above all has the impression of being caught in a real spiral.

"The building has been done, we reimburse. The working hours, we don't count them, the salary, we don't take it so for the moment, we reimburse and that's it. We just reimburse, reimburse , repay,” he continues.

Weekly working hours with no guarantee of a future, due to not being able to count on sufficient income.

"What is happening today is that we have no prospects. We don't know what to expect, we don't know what the prices will be tomorrow. We don't see clearly for "future. A year from now, I can't tell you if exploitation will still continue. We don't know. Who today gets up every day to work and earn nothing?" asks -he.

Alexis joined the farmers' protest movement so, he says, "not to die of my passion".