France: farmers continue their actions, Attal promises announcements “within the week”
The mobilization of farmers is gaining ground.
Several actions are planned again this Tuesday.
roads blocked in the southwest and beyond.
And without a concrete response from the government, the movement will continue: this is the message sent on Monday by two agricultural unions (the FNSEA and the Young Farmers) received by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture.
Listen - 01:15
Union leaders Arnaud Rousseau (D) boss of the FNSEA and Arnaud Gaillot at the head of Young Farmers, at the end of their meeting with the Prime Minister, January 24, 2024. AFP - DIMITAR DILKOFF
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Since Thursday evening, several dozen operators have blocked a portion of the A64 motorway (southwest).
Farmers also blocked access to the Golfech nuclear power plant on Monday, in the same region, and dozens of demonstrators occupied the lanes of the A9 motorway (south).
“
We need very concrete actions and therefore what we said to the Prime Minister is that as long as there are no concrete decisions (...) there will be no lifting the actions carried out on the ground
,” declared the boss of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau.
The agricultural world "
will not be satisfied with measures
", he added to the press after a meeting with the new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, while several blockages are already taking place in the south-west of France.
“The
Prime Minister has clearly stated his desire to move quickly, within the week for a certain number of first announcements
,” responded shortly after, also at the end of the meeting, the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau.
The government fears a conflagration because, from the Netherlands to Romania via Germany and the United Kingdom, farmers are stepping up actions against tax increases and the European “Green Deal”.
Against a backdrop of inflation and competition from Ukrainian imports.
Read also Farmers' discontent spreads in Europe
According to a police source, at this stage “
a few hundred
” farmers are mobilized in France but “
if there is no response from the authorities, there could be a radicalization of actions
”.
This source notes that their movement remains “
popular
” in public opinion, especially since they “do not
make any mistakes
”, with instead “
free toll actions, neutralization of automatic radars
”.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, faced with his first crisis since his appointment on January 11, also received the boss of Young Farmers (JA), Arnaud Gaillot, while the other organizations (Rural Coordination, Confédération paysanne) would have liked to see him be too.
“
For us, the real crisis is around the price” of agricultural production and “income
,” Laurence Marandola, spokesperson for the Peasant Confederation, told AFP.
She attributes it to “
policies implemented for decades, to ultra-liberalism
”, advocated in “
connivance between successive governments and the FNSEA
”.
The leading agricultural union, the FNSEA has won several arbitrations with the government in recent years, such as on taxes on water or pesticides.
And now, among the most urgent subjects are the “
commercial negotiations
” with manufacturers and supermarkets to better pay farmers, the “
crises that a certain number of sectors are going through” and requests for
administrative “simplifications”, admitted Monday evening Mr. Fesneau.
Among the other demands heard on the ground: no new ban on pesticides, stop increasing the price of diesel for tractors, or even be compensated more quickly after calamities.
00:50
Pierrick Horel, general secretary of Young Farmers and cattle breeder in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Agnieszka Kumor
(and with AFP)
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