Lionel Gougelot / Photo credits: PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP 6:30 a.m., March 9, 2024
Demonstration of farmers and fishermen this Saturday afternoon, in Boulogne sur mer. Two worlds coming together in the fight against European policies which, according to them, threaten the survival of their activity.
Fishermen who found themselves among the demands of the agricultural world last month.
Today, they make common cause.
Fishing quotas and fallow regulations, stacking of standards and technocratic directives.
It is against what they call the diktats of Brussels that independent fishermen and farmers are organizing this convergence of struggles this Saturday.
“Things have to move, otherwise European fishing will die”
Two worlds threatened with extinction, according to Jean-Louis Fenart, the president of the Rural Coordination of Pas-de-Calais: "The struggles are identical with the fishermen because the problem is the same. Four years ago, we had still 80 fishing boats of less than 25 meters in Boulogne-sur-Mer. There are only 15 left. And I think that in agriculture, it will be the same. It will be the same with family farming, we will make it disappear because of free trade.
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At sea or in the countryside, the same concern about unfair competition from extra-community imports.
"Our president will have to bang his fist on the table in Brussels and say 'let our farmers and our fishermen work,' says Olivier Leprêtre, president of the Local Fisheries Committee.
“Things have to change, otherwise European fishing will die in favor of imports from non-Community countries where there are no ecological and even less social standards.”
A fisherman boss who says he is ready to join the farmers if they decide to go demonstrate in Brussels soon.