Mourning by the deaths of a breeder and her daughter, the mobilization of farmers increased on Wednesday January 24 in France with roadblocks to put pressure on the government of Gabriel Attal and obtain rapid responses to their “rage” and their demands. “The actions will increase” on Wednesday, promised Tuesday evening on TF1 the president of the FNSEA, the leading agricultural union, Arnaud Rousseau.
Information to remember
⇒ The movement spreads throughout France
⇒ Unions received by Attal
⇒ A meeting in Brussels
Update on current blockages
Started last Thursday in Occitanie by a motorway blockade which continues, the movement has spread throughout France.
New Aquitaine: Early Wednesday, farmers on board at least 200 tractors invaded the Bordeaux ring road, a nerve center between Paris and Spain, blocking traffic to express the demands of “angry agriculture”. At dawn on Wednesday, the Creuse prefecture indicated on the social network cause the gates of the prefecture to “fall”, which they had already sprayed with slurry on Tuesday.
Great East: The A4 must also be blocked around Strasbourg from midday while the Young Farmers plan to cover the Moselle radars (excluding the motorway).
Hauts-de-France: Farmers intend to continue the filter dam set up on a toll on the A29 near Amiens (Somme), and organize new demonstrations in Aisne and Pas-de-Calais in particular, where according to the regional prefecture, “access to the various trans-Channel platforms is likely to be disrupted” – Channel tunnel and port serving England.
Other roads in France are affected by the mobilization as in Bayonne and Pau (A63 and A64), around Lyon (M6, A47), on the A7 from Orange to Montélimar, between Valencia and Grenoble (A49), between Saint-Amand-Montrond and Bourges (A71), the ring road from Orleans or many expressways of Brittany (notably RN12). Multiple other roundabouts, tolls or highway ramps must be occupied, not to mention snail operations, as at Angouleme Tuesday, or two tolls made free on the A83 in Vendée.
Unions received by Attal
After the FNSEA and the Young Farmers (JA) received on Monday, the Rural Coordination, second union, and the Peasant Confederation, third, left Gabriel Attal’s office on Tuesday evening without calling for the blockades to be lifted. The first judged the exchange “constructive” while the second judged the proposals “insufficient”.
Assailed with questions in the Assembly on Tuesday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal spoke of measures that could arrive quickly: first on the remuneration of farmers by manufacturers and supermarkets, supposed to be protected by the so-called “Egalim” law. The annual trade negotiations will end on January 31.
He also promised to respond to the demand for administrative simplification, with operators, especially breeders, having to complete numerous documents every day. Requests for subsidies and aid after calamities also take too long, farmers complain.
A meeting in Brussels
As other major European agricultural countries are faced with similar movements, the subject is also agitating Brussels. The European Commission will bring together agricultural organizations, the agri-food sector, NGOs and experts on Thursday to try to calm things down and convince people of the benefit of reconciling ecological transition and agriculture.
Two deaths in Ariège
The teenager seriously injured Tuesday morning by a car which hit a farmers’ roadblock in Ariège succumbed to her injuries in the evening, the Foix prosecutor’s office announced in a press release.
His mother, a 35-year-old farmer, also died in the accident, and his father was seriously injured. “The young girl died as a result of her injuries shortly after 7:00 p.m.,” the Foix prosecutor’s office said in a statement.