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Demonstrators in Paris: They protested against Macron with whistles and boos and demanded his resignation

Photo: Stephanie Lecocq / REUTERS

Before the opening of the Paris agricultural fair, there were sometimes violent protests against French President Emmanuel Macron.

In the morning, demonstrators broke through a gate on the exhibition grounds and clashed with the security service and the police.

Among them were members of the farmers' associations FNSEA, Jeunes agriculteurs and Coordination rurale.

When they tried to confront Macron, there were scuffles with security personnel who tried to block their way.

Numerous police officers then rushed to push back the demonstrators.

According to the Reuters news agency, there was at least one arrest.

Due to the incident, the agricultural fair did not initially open as planned.

Farmers protested against Macron with whistles and boos and called for his resignation.

“The hunt for Macron is on,” some demonstrators chanted.

Macron calls for restraint

The president, who met with the leaders of the farmers' associations for a discussion, called on farmers to show restraint: "I say this for all farmers: you are not helping any of your colleagues if you break up the stalls, you are not helping any of your colleagues if you makes the exhibition impossible and in this way deters families from coming." The mass must "run smoothly," he explained.

At the same time, he emphasized that the government cannot be expected to provide an answer to this agricultural crisis “in just a few hours.”

Macron announced that he would welcome “all trade union organizations and all agricultural sectors” to a meeting at the Élysée Palace in three weeks.

In France there have been violent protests by farmers in recent weeks, including highway blockades that lasted for days.

The government then went a long way to accommodate the protesters.

She promised an aid package worth 400 million euros and a reduction in bureaucratic requirements.

The EU Commission in Brussels also relaxed the regulations for a minimum proportion of fallow land on arable land in the EU.

Smaller protests flared up again and again - on Wednesday, for example, trucks dumped rubble in front of a supermarket in the west of the country.

svs/AFP