The anger does not abate. Farmers are continuing their actions this Tuesday to obtain “concrete measures”, after discussions still at an impasse with the government of Gabriel Attal and as a meeting of European ministers in the sector opens. At dawn this Tuesday, the Drôme prefecture reported that “around twenty farmers’ tractors are blocking traffic in both directions near Albon on the A7 motorway”, in a publication on the social network x.
“This morning at 4 a.m., farmers forced the service entrance to the A7 motorway near Saint-Rambert-d’Albon. Around thirty tractors with trailers containing bales of straw and slurry are blocking traffic in both directions,” explained the department prefecture in a press release. Saint-Rambert-d’Albon is a town located south of Lyon, an hour’s journey by motorway.
The mobilization of farmers is mourned by the death of a woman in a road accident at a blockage point in Ariège, Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, announced this Tuesday morning. “A road accident happened in Pamiers. Three of our members suffered a serious accident. A woman died, her husband and her daughter are in a complicated condition and were taken care of quickly,” he said. declared on RMC.
Road blockages began Thursday evening in Occitanie, where the A64 between Toulouse and Bayonne is cut off to traffic at Carbonne (Haute-Garonne), 45 km from Toulouse. It should remain so on Tuesday. Since Monday, the A62 has been blocked at Agen in both directions. Farmers also dumped tires on the railway tracks at the entrance to Agen station, where traffic has been blocked since around 6:15 p.m. And the movement could spread: the Young Farmers of Oise announced to AFP a blockage of the A16 motorway this Tuesday at the beginning of the afternoon near Beauvais. But “no evacuation of the blockages by the police is planned at this stage because there is no damage”, assured the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
Gabriel Attal wants to “go quickly”
Monday evening, the government welcomed the majority unions for a little over two hours, without announcement at the exit. There will be “no lifting of the actions” carried out by farmers as long as there are “no concrete decisions” from the executive, declared Monday the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau at the end of this encounter.
“We expect the Prime Minister to be able to make a certain number of declarations during the week that will significantly move the lines,” he said. Arnaud Rousseau notably raised the subject of an immediate discount on diesel for tractors, instead of a reimbursement on invoice and declaration.
Gabriel Attal wants to “go quickly”, “within the week” for certain announcements, affirmed the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, who spoke after the FNSEA and the Young Farmers union at the end of the meeting. “I believe that we objectively share the diagnosis,” added the minister, for whom “farmers need it to be translated into action”. He indicated that the Prime Minister was committed to meeting them.
Reduce “paperwork”
The leading French agricultural union, the FNSEA has won numerous arbitrations with the government for several years, such as on taxes on water or pesticides, but the mass of farmers continue to complain of being overwhelmed by standards and of not winning. life quite well.
Among the many demands heard on the ground: administrative simplifications, no new ban on pesticides, stopping increasing the price of diesel for tractors, being compensated more quickly after calamities or even the full application of the law supposed to oblige manufacturers and supermarkets to pay farmers better. Gabriel Attal had already promised on Saturday to “make life easier” for farmers by reducing “red tape”.