The president of the FNSEA, one of the main agricultural unions, announced the continuation of farmers’ demonstrations “all week and as long as necessary”.
New day of demonstrations for farmers mobilized on the roads for four days, this Monday, January 22. But this is different in that while the operators continue to block the roads, representatives of the FNSEA and Young Farmers will be received by Gabriel Attal in Matignon. And the president of the FNSEA who is also a farmer in Seine-et-Marne, Arnaud Rousseau, expects from this meeting the answers to three clear questions: “what are we doing to help farmers? What deadlines? With what means?”
Actions “all week and as long as necessary”
With these demonstrations and these blockages, “the anger of farmers is expressed” and it “is not new” declared the president of the FNSEA on France Inter. The rapeseed producer recalls that for months the agricultural sector has been sounding the alarm on the conditions of exercise of their professions complicated by an accumulation of French and European measures: “What is happening today is the overfull”.
The mobilization of farmers began in November 2023 with the “we walk on our heads” campaign and the signs returned to the entrances of towns. But it is since this weekend that the movement has attracted attention with blockages of several roads, particularly in Occitania. Actions which are only just beginning according to Arnaud Rousseau: “I can tell you that from today and throughout the week and for as long as it is necessary, a certain number of actions will be carried out”. The Coordination Rurale union, chaired by Véronique Le Floc’h, for its part announced “spectacular” operations for the day of January 25 “because the farmers can’t take it anymore”.
Anger against the European Green Deal
The reasons for the farmers’ anger are numerous and diverse – whether in France or in Europe where the movement is spreading – but they all have a “common basis” underlines the president of the FNSEA: “the incomprehension of the Green European deal (Green Deal), whose agricultural variation ‘from farm to fork’ has a decreasing vision”. The consequence of these European measures is the drop in production in Europe at a time when imports of agricultural products are increasing, points out the union representative. “We import 40 to 50% of our fruits and vegetables, one in two poultry, 20% of cattle,” listed the general secretary of the FNSEA, Hervé Lapie, for example. Cnews this Monday morning.
These drops in production, coupled with the numerous standards to be respected, climatic difficulties and low remuneration for farmers, complicate the daily life of farmers. Aurélien Rousseau’s objective before his meeting with Gabriel Attal is therefore to “restore a form of dignity to agricultural professions, to talk about income and competitiveness since you have to earn your living in agriculture and to talk about reality of daily exercise, how with the overadministration or variation of a certain number of rules we are no longer in line with what is happening. After a weekend full of positions taken by politicians on these subjects and in defense of farmers, Arnaud Rousseau takes political leaders at their word and expects action accordingly: “The findings seem to be shared, so take action!”