Despite ads of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Friday and, the mobilization remains “total” announced the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau this Sunday, January 28, calling on farmers to “calm and determination”. Today, angry farmers are determined to block major roads leading to Paris and other large cities, from 2 p.m.
Information to remember
⇒ Upcoming blockages around Paris
⇒ Farmers plan to block the Rungis market
⇒ 15,000 members of the police mobilized
The president of the FNSEA will meet with Attal during the day
The president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau announced Monday on RTL that it was “planned” that he would speak with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during the day to discuss possible solutions to the agricultural crisis.
The head of the majority agricultural union had indicated on Friday evening, just after the announcements of emergency measures by Mr. Attal, that he was ready to meet the head of government the next day to discuss the situation.
“It is planned that we will speak (during the day) with the Prime Minister but as I speak to you, I do not know at what time,” he said on Monday.
“Siege of Paris” from 2 p.m.
From 2 p.m., the FNSEA and the Young Farmers of the Greater Paris Basin have planned eight “blocking points” on major highways a few kilometers or tens of kilometers from the ring road, but with the slogan of a “siege” of the capital, without time limit.
This is the Chennevières area (A1), near Jossigny (A4), at Ourdy (A5), Villabé (A6), at the Buchelay toll (A13), at Longivilliers (A10), between the bridge de Gennevilliers and the D311 (A15) and near the D301 interchange of Isle-Adam (A16), the FRSEA of Ile-de-France told AFP on Sunday evening.
A convoy of farmers left Agen on Monday morning in the direction of Rungis (Val-de-Marne), at the call of the Rural Coordination union, which intends to “invest” in the national interest market (MIN), noted AFP journalists. Around thirty tractors took the road from the town’s livestock market, to join colleagues in Cancon (Lot-et-Garonne) then Bergerac (Dordogne), Périgueux, before a stopover in a “base camp” in evening near Limoges.
After passing through Tours, the arrival in Rungis is planned “Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning”, Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, president of the Lot-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture, told AFP.
In Lyon, the mobilization will resume
Around Lyon, mobilization should resume early Monday, according to the Rhône prefecture, which mentioned a snail operation coming from the Monts du Lyonnais then motorway blockages. The local branches of the FNSEA and the JA promised “ramifications throughout the region”.
In Nimes, farmers are still blocking the highway
Farmers from Gard have been blocking the A9 motorway since Thursday morning, at the Nîmes-Ouest interchange. They held their fourth day of mobilization on Sunday January 28. And they spent the night at their rallying point. There are around fifty people occupying the A9 motorway, closed to traffic around Nîmes since Thursday. They demand “the arrival of the Minister of Agriculture with concrete announcements”.
The demonstrators are not planning to reach Paris so as not to “risk raising our symbolic barrier on a highway” explains the president of the FDSEA, David Sève. They announce that they will block the highway at least until Tuesday morning.
After the farmers, taxis also block the Bordeaux ring road
After the farmers, several hundred taxis from Nouvelle-Aquitaine gathered on Monday to in turn block the Bordeaux ring road, a nerve center between Paris and Spain, as part of a national mobilization to renegotiate the transport of patients with the ‘Health Insurance.
Blocked from Wednesday to last Friday by several hundred angry farmers, the ring road which surrounds Bordeaux is this time targeted by a snail operation from 6:30 a.m., with 500 to 800 taxis expected according to the Bordeaux Métropole and City Taxi Union. Gironde (STBMG). The prefecture confirms to expect “several hundred” taxis. Other similar actions have been announced elsewhere in France, such as in Lyon or Marseille.
15,000 police and gendarmes mobilized
The government announced that 15,000 members of the police would be mobilized on Monday to prevent tractors from entering “Paris and major cities”, while a “siege” of the capital is planned from 2 p.m. by angry farmers.
At the end of an interministerial crisis meeting, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin also announced a “moderation” requested from the police who should not “intervene on blocking points” but “secure” them. He explained that President Emmanuel Macron had given “instructions” to “guarantee that tractors do not go to Paris and large cities so as not to create extremely serious difficulties”, and also to ensure that the market Rungis international airport “can operate as well as the Parisian airports of Orly and Roissy”.