French farmers began their second day of blocking strategic routes around Paris and elsewhere in the country this Tuesday, increasing pressure on Emmanuel Macron’s government which promises to ” new measures » to put out this new social fire.
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These new measures must be unveiled during the day, the first agricultural union, the FNSEA, having judged after the emergency measures announced Friday by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal that it was necessary “ go further “. The head of government received again Monday evening, for three and a half hours, Arnaud Rousseau and his counterpart from the allied Young Farmers (JA) union Arnaud Gaillot, without statements at the end. Not invited, the minority union Confédération paysanne, on the left, calls on other organizations to focus on “ the end of free trade agreements ” And “ the formal ban on the purchase of agricultural products below their cost price “.
Despite union threats, the “ seat » announced from Paris has so far not taken place, the Ile-de-France airports have not been blocked any more than the Rungis fresh produce market, the largest in the world, which supplies the Paris region.
A convoy of some 200 tractors, which left the south of the country, however took to the road again this Tuesday morning towards this market, which it intends to invest in the afternoon, at the call of the Rural Coordination, noted an AFP photographer.
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What is the Rungis market?
Located south of Paris, the Rungis international market is structured into specialized pavilions intended to provide fresh products to professionals in Paris, but also to the entire Île-de-France region. Proof of its importance, it is also the largest market for agricultural products in the world, an essential place for a large part of the country.
Rungis in figures is:
- 234 hectares of surface area, the equivalent of a city within a city
- 3 million tonnes of goods pass through it per year, more than half of which are food products
- an annual turnover of 10 billion euros
If the farmers want to join Rungis to demonstrate, it is quite simply because it is the central market of the capital, its suburbs, neighboring departments and Europe. Concretely, almost everything you find on the stalls of greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers or even on the menu of restaurants in the Paris region, goes through Rungis. And to do this, the goods arrive every day in hundreds of chartered trucks to the hangars, but also by trains or by plane. Well-established mechanics and logistics that feed 18 million inhabitants, a little less than one in 3 French people.
A place inaugurated in 1969, which has become a real institution, and which replaced the old Halles in the center of Paris.
In total, more than a quarter of French departments (30) were affected by this movement of anger among the peasant world, which threatens to degenerate into a new social crisis a year after the vast mobilization against the raising of the retirement age to retirement.
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More than a week after the first blocking of roads in Occitanie, which launched the movement on January 26, other various actions are planned throughout France.
(with AFP)