Between Toulouse and Tarbes, the A64 motorway is still blocked by farmers this Friday, January 19, 2024. They are demonstrating against the lack of resources and the restrictions targeting the profession.
This Friday, January 19, the farmers’ demonstrations on the A 64 motorway are still ongoing. Traffic is blocked between Toulouse and Tarbes, between interchanges 26 and 27 near Carbonne (Haute-Garonne), by 250 farmers. On site since January 18, they responded to the call launched by the federation of agricultural operators’ unions of Haute-Garonne on his social networks. They announced this Friday “that they ultimately intended to stay several days on this highway”, specifies West France. This is a new stage in the mobilization of farmers who had already gathered in Toulouse on January 16.
Wall of straw bales and 250 farmers block the A64 motorway which is cut, drones authorized by the prefecture to monitor pic.twitter.com/znNJU9Umt3
— Claire ROCHERON (@RocheronClaire) January 19, 2024
Alongside trucks lined up one behind the other, clumps of straw piled up to form a dam, farmers benefit from the support of motorists and local residents as reported Toulouse News and the demonstrators themselves to the media. If farmers block the roads and disrupt traffic, motorists can use the diversions put in place on Thursday on the secondary network.
What are their demands?
The union organization is calling for the “urgent release of the envelopes promised by the State”, “the rehabilitation of the rate of exemption from the consumption tax on energy products” and not to modify irrigation authorizations. According to Christiane Lambert, president of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations of the European Union, farmers who already have to deal with climate disruption, the surge in their production costs and the commercial consequences of the war in Ukraine, have the feeling of “being imposed” measures that are too drastic, particularly in the context of the ecological transition, reports West France.
The regional daily also reveals that this demonstration “is part of a broader movement of anger”. These actions are increasing “all over Europe, particularly in Romania, the Netherlands and Germany”.