Farmers in France, reacting to the government’s agricultural policies and environmental regulations, increased the pressure on the government and closed and blockaded the highways around the capital Paris to meet their demands. Farmers blocked the roads with tractors at 8 points, including the A10, A13, A4 and A6 motorways around Paris, and barricaded some roads with hay bales.
Farmers hung banners on their tractors saying “Angry farmer”, “I dreamed of it when I was young, but today I am dying” and “We will not die silently”. “This is the last battle for farming. It’s a matter of survival,” said a farmer who supported the protest.
The government assigned 15 thousand police officers and gendarmes due to the farmers’ protest. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called on the security forces to exercise restraint in the face of the protests and warned farmers not to intervene in strategic points.
“We will not allow government buildings, tax offices, supermarkets to be damaged or trucks carrying foreign products to be stopped,” Darmanin said.
Darmanin said that protesters would not be allowed to intervene at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports in Paris or the Rungis international wholesale food market in the south of the city, and announced that armored police vehicles were deployed at these points.
Belgian farmers blocked the highways in the south of the country and parked their tractors near the EU Parliament in the capital Brussels. Although the French government has stepped back and stated that state support for diesel will be phased out and the policy will be simplified, farmers continue to oppose the pesticide and herbicide bans contained in the European Union (EU) Green Deal.