Spearhead of peasant anger, the Rural Coordination led an action, Friday March 1, around the Arc de Triomphe, blocking the top of the Champs-Élysées with straw bales and tractors.
Axel Masson, a breeder in Loir-et-Cher, explained to AFP that there were around a hundred gathered at 4:00 a.m. Friday morning "in calm and respect".
Shortly after 7:00 a.m., police cars were positioned at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, with traffic at the top of the famous avenue still blocked.
There are around fifty trade unionists left, surrounded by the police.
Around ten tractors from the Rural Coordination, with a French flag, were parked at the corner of Avenue Marceau, according to the AFP journalist.
After the storming of the Bastille and the peaceful Rungis, @coordinationrur pays tribute to the Arc de Triomphe to save our French agriculture.
Stop the co-management which has caused nearly 800,000 cows to disappear from our meadows.
@franceinfo @CNEWS @BFMTV pic.twitter.com/i4ONwcMyGL
— Coordination Rurale (@coordinationrur) March 1, 2024
The union announced on X that it was mobilized "to save our French agriculture", before the last weekend of the Agricultural Show.
“The Rural Coordination symbolically and peacefully takes the Star,” writes the union on the social network.
The union is demanding “quick action to save our 45% of farms in financial distress”.
“We went up this morning to lay a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe to pay tribute to all the farmers who commit suicide,” said Axel Masson.
"We are still not being heard by the State. At 6 a.m. we were supposed to leave peacefully. We were supposed to pick up and leave the place clean", but the police prevented them from leaving, according to him.
With AFP
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