Martin Lange / Photo credit: MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 7:52 p.m., January 30, 2024

In his general policy speech, Gabriel Attal raised the agricultural issue while farmers have been making their anger heard for more than ten days. Wishing to promote a “French agricultural exception”, he notably announced the payment of CAP aid on March 15. Too little for the farmers we met.

They were hoping for something concrete, but came out disappointed. Farmers, mobilized for almost ten days to demand better incomes and lower standards, listened this Tuesday afternoon to the general policy speech delivered by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to the Assembly. On the A10 motorway, about 40 km from Paris, around a small radio station, some on the screen of their mobile phones, they did not miss a beat, but the words of the head of government left unsatisfied. 

"It vaguely reminds me of last Friday. A lot of noise about not much. It's not satisfactory, we need something concrete that can change my daily life tomorrow. I'm disappointed, but more and more determined to defend my profession" , assures Sylvain Marcuard, cereal grower in Eure-et-Loir. 

“To wear out a peasant, you have to go hard” 

The Prime Minister notably announced an emergency fund for wine growers, an exemption for fallow land and even the payment of the CAP, European aid, on March 15. On this last point, Romain, also a farmer in Eure-et-Loir, frowns. "March 15? But since October, we've been waiting for that! If he had told us next week, that would have been an announcement, but how long until March 15? Who is he kidding? It's too far away. Let him take his stub book and pay the farmers who are waiting for their money. I imagine the government is trying to play usury, but I tell you guaranteed that to wear out a peasant, you have to go hard." 

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Anger is therefore struggling to fall within the ranks of these farmers who are setting out this Tuesday evening to get closer to the capital. The roadblocks are moving, the objective being to block the N118, one of the major routes to access Paris.