On the 5th day of mobilization in the South-West, the farmers’ unions were received by the Prime Minister on Monday evening. “We will not be satisfied with measures,” they warned, also announcing the continuation of actions while the executive promised first announcements “within the week”.
9:36 p.m. – The Minister of Agriculture expected in Hérault on February 2 to “make announcements”
If initial announcements must be presented to farmers by the Prime Minister “in the week”, and “later for a more medium term”, the Minister of Agriculture said at the start of the evening, BFMTV understands that the latter will himself travel to the department of Hérault on February 2 to “make announcements”. In any case, this is what his office reportedly told the 24-hour news channel on Monday evening.
20:33 – First announcements made “within the week” promises the Minister of Agriculture
At the end of the meeting between the farmers’ unions and the Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, also spoke. He promised “a certain number of first announcements” during the week, also calling for the anger of farmers to be heard “collectively”.
20:25 – Gabriel Attal at the farmers’ bedside in the coming days?
“We told the Prime Minister that, to give confidence, he had to go into the field,” explained Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, after the meeting between Gabriel Attal and the farmers’ unions. Monday evening. And to continue: “He is committed to meeting farmers in the field in the coming days.”
20:14 – Farmers will not be satisfied with “no words”, unions warn
Received in Matignon this Monday evening, the farmers’ unions spoke at the end of their interview with the Prime Minister. “Gabriel Attal shared this diagnosis of an unparalleled situation,” they declared, affirming to have felt “heard very widely”. “We told him that we would not be satisfied with words,” however warned Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA. And the one who urges the Prime Minister to propose a series of “specific acts during the week” to farmers insists: “There will be no lifting of actions” without actions.
19:37 – TER traffic to and from Bordeaux interrupted
Following “following [d’]a demonstration by farmers, obstacles on the tracks and catenaries between Marmande and Agen interrupt traffic in both directions. Normal recovery is estimated around 8 p.m.”, indicates the SNCF while a journalist from Sud Ouest disclosed images of farmers dumping tires and slurry on the tracks.
18:29 – Three topics to discuss with Gabriel Attal according to the Young Farmers
During his meeting with the Prime Minister, the president of Young Farmers Arnaud Gaillot wishes to address several subjects as he said on France 2 : the need to enforce the EGAlim law of 2021 which ensures that the farmer has the guarantee of having his product sold at the right price but with which part of the large-scale distribution takes liberties according to the farmer; the need to establish clear objectives for agriculture and the “food transition”; and finally the subject of unfair competition with imported products but far from respecting the same standards as French products.
While European standards are singled out by farmers, Arnaud Gaillot clarified that farmers are for a “food transition” which would make it possible to guarantee production levels while being concerned about the environment, “but it is a project which takes time and for which “we cannot ask to do in five years what has not been done in 30 years” according to the breeder. Farmers must also be able to live from their production, or the “financial compensation is not up to par” also remarked the union representative.
18:02 – What does the FNSEA expect from the meeting with Gabriel Attal?
The president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, is due to speak with his counterpart from the Young Farmers union, Arnaud Gaillot, and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in Matignon about the mobilization and anger of the profession this Monday, at 6 p.m. The trade unionist expects from this meeting the answers to three clear questions: “what are we doing to help farmers? In what time frame? With what means?” On France Inter, Arnaud Rousseau declared that he wanted to “restore a form of dignity to agricultural professions, talk about income and competitiveness, since you have to earn your living in agriculture, and to talk about the reality of the daily exercise, how with the overadministration or variation of a certain number of rules we are no longer in line with what is happening.”
But no more words, the boss of the FNSEA expects concrete and rapid measures, especially after the declarations of the Prime Minister or the Minister of Agriculture this weekend: “The observation seems shared, so take action!”
17:40 – Arnaud Gaillot: “We could be at the dawn of a major farmers’ movement”
“Until the answers are provided, I will have difficulty telling people [agriculteurs mobilisés] to leave” declared the president of the Young Farmers union on France 2, this Monday. “For the moment we support the blockade, we will see at the end of the meeting with Gabriel Attal if we call for lifting the blockade”, but “if the government is not there, there will be d “other mobilizations” warned Arnaud Gaillot who nevertheless calls on the demonstrators to be responsible. In contact with the agricultural sector of neighboring European countries, the farmer believes “that we could be at the dawn of a major farmers’ movement” in the absence of a response from the French and European authorities.
17:17 – Marc Fesneau announces funds to accelerate the construction of mega-basins
Anxious to show that he is at work, the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau expressed this Monday his desire to accelerate the construction of water reserves, also known as mega-basins, by announcing a €20 million fund to improve water storage and irrigation efficiency. This project, criticized by environmental activists, is supported by farmers who rely on these water reserves to overcome the difficulties of global warming. If the construction of mega-basins is a response to certain demands of farmers, it does not seem to be a sufficient response, nor even a priority for the mobilized farmers.
16:45 – Farmers in front of the European Parliament this Wednesday
The agricultural union Rural Coordination, which said it was capable of bringing farmers to Paris, announced the organization of a demonstration in front of the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday January 24. “Faced with ever-increasing constraints from European regulations and increasingly low incomes, the agricultural world is at the end of its rope!” writes the union in its press release. It is therefore in front of one of the European institutions that he is meeting for an event which more or less coincides with a meeting of European agriculture ministers planned in Brussels at the start of the week.
16:23 – A convoy of farmers in the town of Agen
In addition to blockages on the roads, some convoys of farmers are heading towards towns like in Agen, in Lot-et-Garonne, where several tractors drove on the boulevards before parking in a roundabout.
16:03 – “We are ready to go to Paris and paralyze the capital” says a farmer
“We are ready to go to Paris, boycott the Agricultural Show and paralyze the capital with our tractors.” Jérôme Bayle, beef cattle breeder and agricultural figure at the origin of the blocking of the A64, set the tone this Monday in the media. On Europe 1, the operator promised to continue the movement “as long as the State continues to despise its farmers and does not find solutions to stop the agricultural massacre”. The man is not kind to the State, which he accuses of “sacrificing French farmers for the benefit of industry” and of “being complicit in agricultural genocide”. Mobilized on the A64, Jérôme Bayle called, at the microphone of BFMTVall farmers to go on the roads and “show the State that we will be firm and determined. […] We will continue the fight throughout France, but with dignity,” she assured, warning that “by Wednesday, France will be paralyzed.”
15:41 – Environmentalists in support of environmental standards… and farmers
While the European Green Deal, which brings together several environmental measures, is one of the reasons for farmers’ anger, elected environmentalists are stepping up to defend its measures. Yannick Jadot also considers this “repeat about environmental standards which would kill agriculture” “unbearable”. THE senator estimates on that this is a way of turning away from the real problem: “It above all avoids public debates and within the agricultural profession on the agricultural model which for 40 years has concentrated 80% of aid on the 20% of farmers the richest and the most intensive production in the service of agro-industry! It is this model which precarizes, isolates and condemns too many farmers.” The ecologist considers another model combining environment and agriculture “possible” and even sees it as “the solution”: “agro-ecology and organic”.
Earlier this Monday, it was the environmentalist deputy for Paris Sandrine Rousseau who wanted to reconcile environment and agriculture, ensuring that the problem is not linked to environmental standards but to the market. “The subject is not the environment, it is how we reorganize the agricultural sector. We must produce differently, with less impact on the environment, with more income” he declared on South Radio. It is therefore out of the question for the elected official to return to the measures which ban pesticides, regulate irrigation and others: “I understand the anger, but I am not in favor of continuing with the agricultural model as it is Currently”.
3:13 p.m. – The A64 demonstrators will not be evacuated, promises Darmanin
There are “no plans for evacuations by the police” of farmers demonstrating on the A64 “since there is no damage to this site”, assured the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin at a press conference this Monday afternoon. The fire started this morning around a bale of straw, taken care of by the farmers then by the firefighters and condemned by the mobilized farmers, is not enough to motivate the evacuation of the premises. The minister, however, called on farmers to “respect common law”, recognizing that this is “what they generally do”. Gérald Darmanin also expressed his support for farmers and praised the government’s action alongside them.
15:02 – Unfair competition between French products and imports
Farmers denounce other effects of the European Green Deal, starting with the increase in imports. Certain standards have the effect of reducing the quantities produced, this loss of production must be compensated by imports of agricultural products. Nonsense for operators who are forced to produce less, but at the same time see the presence of foreign products taking up more space in businesses. “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 imports, not being subject to the same French and European standards, also constitute unfair competition for farmers. French operators are subject to strict rules – and justifying a certain cost of the product sold – to produce and find themselves on the market, when imports do not respect the same criteria and can therefore be sold less expensively and attract more consumers.