The anger does not subside. The mobilization of farmers continues on Saturday January 27 despite the blockades lifted in places. Agricultural unions consider the string of aid and simplification measures announced by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal insufficient to put an end to their anger.

In Gard, where the A9 and A54 motorways are cut near Nîmes, "it continues and teams remained mobilized all night", Laurence Biscayet of FDSEA Gard told AFP on Saturday morning. According to her, instructions were given to “gather before 8 a.m. There is a need to sit down, evaluate last night’s announcements and think about the actions that will follow,” she declared.

He acceded to some of the demonstrators' most pressing demands, including 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 food manufacturers not respecting the Egalim laws on prices.

Also read: Downgrading, debt, European standards… the reasons for the anger of French farmers

“We won’t let you go”

“We will not let go of you. I will not let go of you,” he said from a cattle farm in Montastruc-de-Salies (Haute-Garonne), saying he had “decided to put agriculture above all else.” ".

Enough to satisfy the Occitan breeder Jérôme Bayle, initiator of the first blockage on the A64 who, alongside the Prime Minister, announced on the Carbonne dam (Haute-Garonne) that it would be lifted by Saturday noon.

Farmers transport tires to block the roads in Le Mans, January 26, 2024 in Sarthe © GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP

But not the FNSEA which – together with the Young Farmers – is the majority union of the profession, nor the Rural Coordination or the Peasant Confederation. “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 said for its part it wanted to “continue the mobilization” to obtain “structural measures”. Its members announced a “surprise” action on Saturday morning in Figeac (Lot).

If the blockage of the RN145 in the Creuse must be lifted on Saturday at midday, the account is not there for Christian Arvis, president of the FDSEA of the department, for whom "Gabriel Attal's announcements are a shame", “pipeaux, scoops,” he scolded on Friday.

The farmers' vote, an issue for the European elections

In Brittany, many blockades were lifted everywhere on Friday evening but in Guingamp (Côtes d'Armor), several dozen angry farmers invaded the center of the town with tractors and skips at the end of the evening.

Everywhere across France – the leading agricultural power in the European Union – a mixture of passion and despair was expressed, with processions here displaying a straw hanger, there displaying the slogan “Children we dream of it, adults we die of it ".

“At his time, my grandfather lived with four hectares of plum trees and ten cows, today you need 120 cows to live, you need 60 hectares of plum trees,” Théo Artillan, 20, told AFP. from Temple-sur-Lot (Lot-et-Garonne). He “no longer wants to settle down”.

Also readNew generations of farmers: “We mobilize a lot of money for little profitability”

The mobilization was mourned on Tuesday by the accidental death of a farmer and her daughter on a dam in Pamiers (Ariège), where a white march will take place on Saturday from 1:30 p.m.

In Matignon, the reception of the measures is carefully scrutinized. “We have to see how the situation evolves over the weekend,” observes those around Gabriel Attal, who promises “to continue to bring a certain number of measures between now and the Agricultural Show " end of February.

While the farmers' vote is an issue in the European elections (which take place next June, editor's note), political leaders have not failed to criticize the government's response.

“Short-term” measures which “respond neither to the issues nor to expectations”, castigated the president of the National Rally (RN) group in the National Assembly, Marine Le Pen. A “communication operation” for Éric Coquerel, deputy for La France insoumise (LFI) and president of the Finance Commission of the National Assembly.

With AFP

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