Charles Guyard / Photo credits: QUENTIN DE GROEVE / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 08:33, February 2, 2024
After new government announcements and at the call of the leader of Young Farmers, Arnaud Gaillot, angry farmers have lifted the majority of blockades on French roads and are back to work on their farms, despite fatigue.
These are tired but somewhat reassured farmers who left the majority of the dams on Thursday evening, after the new announcements from Gabriel Attal. This Friday morning, there are still a few dams to be counted, on the A6, near Chilly-Mazarin, in Essonne, for example, but the departure of the operators is planned for mid-morning. After more than two weeks of mobilization, it is therefore a return to the farm for the farmers.
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“We are going to start new work with the prefects”
On a dairy farm in La Planche in Loire-Atlantique, farmer Gaël Drouet quickly swapped his banner for his electric milking machine. Present on one of the dams erected around Nantes in recent days, he is this morning in his barn of 70 dairy cows.
After a decent night's sleep, he says, Gaël doesn't know what to think of the Prime Minister's announcements. "We are divided. We had to go back because we are tired, we have been in action for eight days. So, it was time to return to our farm, to find the family", he confides. “Now, we are going to start new work with the prefects to move forward on the file,” he adds.
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Farmers: support for breeders, controls... What to remember from the government's new measures
In response to the farmers' crisis, Gabriel Attal announced a new series of measures on Thursday: include the objective of food sovereignty in the law, strengthen the Egalim law, provide fiscal and social support to breeders to the tune of 150 million euros, as well as the establishment of a safeguard clause on a pesticide to “fight against unfair competition”.