It’s the “week of all dangers”. The president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau called on farmers this Sunday, January 28, to “calm and determination”, warning that their mobilization remained “total” despite the announcements of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Friday. Arnaud Rousseau said he did not want a tragedy like that of Pamiers (Ariège) where a farmer and her daughter were killed on Tuesday on a dam: “no question of there being other accidents”. L’Express takes stock of the blockages planned for Monday, January 29.
Paris and Île-de-France
The FNSEA and Young Farmers of the Greater Paris Basin unions announced a “siege of the capital for an indefinite period” starting this Monday at 2 p.m. “All the heavy roads leading to the capital will be occupied by farmers”, according to the slogan broadcast on Saturday evening by the two unions, which represent the majority of the profession at the national level.
“From Monday January 29 at 2 p.m. farmers from the departments: Aisne, Aube, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Île-de-France, Marne, Nord, Oise , Pas-de-Calais, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Maritime and Somme, members of the FNSEA network and Young Farmers of the Greater Paris Basin are beginning a siege of the capital for an indefinite period,” they wrote in a press release.
The Lot-et-Garonne Rural Coordination, for its part, plans to “go to Paris” to “block” the Rungis market. “We decided on Monday morning to leave for Paris, on tractors, to join the movement. We decided to go to Paris to block Rungis,” José Pérez, co-president of CR 47, declared on Saturday. “We are leaving on Monday to 9 hours from Agen, we take the highway at Cahors, we go up to Paris via Limoges and we pick up all the people who want to join us,” he added.
Cyrille Milard, president of the FNSEA of Seine-et-Marne and coordinator of the blocking of the A4, A5 and A6 motorways, noted at the Parisian that it plans a total of 500 tractors and at least 1,000 farmers at the three blockage points in the Paris region. According to The Parisian, the A4 will be blocked below Jossigny, the A5 next to Ourdi, just before arriving at Carré-Sénart, and the A6 probably at the Villabé area. “The blockage will happen in both directions,” warns Cyrille Milard.
Gérald Darmanin, who is convening an interministerial crisis meeting this Sunday, asked law enforcement officials to put in place “an important defensive system in order to prevent any blockage” by farmers of the Rungis market and Ile-de-France airports. and “to prohibit all entry into Paris”. The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, for his part, professed on BFMTV “zero tolerance on violence and damage”, while saying he doubted that blocking road access to Paris would serve the “interests of farmers”.
Lyon
Paris should not be the only large city affected by blockages this Monday. Michel Joux, president of the FRSEA Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, told BFMTV that access to Lyon will be blocked by farmers from 2 p.m. “Our Parisian friends are going to blockade Paris. We are going to besiege the second city in France, Lyon,” he promises. Traffic could be paralyzed while a taxi snail operation is planned in the Lyon metropolitan area from 9 a.m., indicates the local press.
Boulogne-sur-Mer
Difficulties are also expected in Pas-de-Calais. Lucie Delbarre, FDSEA general secretary of Pas-de-Calais, told AFP that she plans a blockage of the A16 this Monday south of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Nimes
Farmers from Gard, who have been blocking the A9 motorway near Nîmes since Thursday morning, are demanding “the arrival of the Minister of Agriculture with concrete announcements”, failing which they will not lift their blockade, declared this Sunday their representative.
The “additional” measures announced Sunday morning by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal do not bring “any significant progress”, reacted the president of the FDSEA du Gard, David Sève, interviewed by AFP. The A9, always cut by bales of hay, vine shoots and agricultural machinery, connects Orange (Vaucluse) to the Spanish border.
And elsewhere
On Sunday, the A7 motorway was still cut between Chanas (Isère) and Orange towards Marseille and between Avignon and Chanas towards Lyon, according to the operator Vinci Autoroutes. In the South-East, other cuts affect the A48, A480, A49, A71, A75 and A79 motorways. And in the Meuse, the A4 is blocked between Manheulles and Haudiomont, according to the Young Farmers. In Normandy, the A13 is cut in both directions at Gaillon (Eure), according to the interdepartmental roads department.