Anger of farmers: majority agricultural unions call for suspension of blockades

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP 4:14 p.m., February 1, 2024

The majority unions FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs called on Thursday to suspend the blockades of farmers in France in view of the announcements of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. “We have decided that at the moment, in view of everything that has been announced (...), we need to change our modes of action and therefore we are calling on our networks (...) to suspend the blockages and enter into a new form of mobilization", indicated the president of the JA Arnaud Gaillot, alongside the boss of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau, during a press conference in Paris at the headquarters of the FNSEA.

“First results”

They set several conditions for not resuming the movement: "first results" by the Agricultural Show (February 24-March 3) then the adoption of an agricultural orientation and future law as well as of European measures by June. “If by the month of June, these markers are not met, we will not hesitate to re-enter a general mobilization movement,” declared Arnaud Gaillot. The two officials called for a summary document putting in writing all the government's announcements.

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Before the Agricultural Show, "we have fifteen days to see if all this is serious, it's credible, it holds water", declared Arnaud Rousseau. The head of the FNSEA generally praised the Prime Minister's "listening" "to try to understand what our issues are, to receive us, to exchange, to discuss and finally to announce emergency measures in several bursts." “At the same time, we question the deafness of Europe,” he added, referring to “the growing incomprehension between a technostructure walled in its offices in Brussels and the realities of what we experience in our exploitations”.