Farmers' blockade: are we heading towards a confrontation between operators on the A10 motorway?

Guillaume Dominguez / Photo credit: HENRIQUE CAMPOS / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 2:08 p.m., January 31, 2024

Among the 120 blockade points installed by farmers, that of Janvry, on the A10 motorway in Essonne, is observed with more attention. The operators of the FNSEA and the Young Farmers could, in fact, be joined by those of the Rural Coordination, who left Agen, and determined to block the Rungis market, protected by the police. 

A question therefore arises insistently: will the farmers already established on the A10 let this convoy pass, given the red line that a blockade of Rungis would constitute, according to the government? “Today, we are all farmers. So our colleagues are right to come with us to put forward these demands which are very strong in the agricultural world,” responds Christophe Lerebour, secretary general of the Île-de-France Chamber of Agriculture. -France. 

“I think they will have the intelligence to take another route” 

While specifying that an opening of the dam to allow the Rural Coordination convoy to pass has not been confirmed at the moment. "Unfortunately, even if we wanted to let them pass, we couldn't because opposite, we have a wall of armored gendarmerie vehicles. So for me, they have to be careful because it's not going to happen. not be the right way to go to Rungis. So, they would have to go back in the other direction because we can't get through and it would be unfortunate if they wasted their time here. I think they will have the "intelligence to take another route".

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However, if the two movements are in general agreement on the substance, they present some disagreements on the form and the means to use to make their discontent heard. "I think we are all intelligent enough to understand that we choose to try to communicate with the French to express our discomfort to them. They chose another way of expressing themselves, it's their way to see things. So, we try to make them understand that, to deal with such an important subject, the French need to have serenity, understanding of the movement. And we must not add violence . Because for years, we have known what violence brings to our country,” concludes Christophe Lerebour. 

For the moment, the watchword is to maintain the blockage on the A10, in both directions, for a good part of the afternoon.