Farmers’ anger continues to grow on Friday January 26. The FDSEA and Young Farmers are calling for a “Paris blockade” from 2 p.m.
The anger of farmers continues to rumble. This Friday, January 26, the FDSEA and the Young Farmers announce 5 roadblocks around Paris from 2 p.m. in order to block all the main roads in the Ile-de-France region. The actions are planned in particular at the Buchelay toll, on the A10-A11 at the Saint-Arnoult toll, and on the RN14 in Villeneuve-Saint-Martin. The A1 motorway, which connects the capital to northern Europe, has already been closed in both directions since Friday morning. In Meaux, in Seine-et-Marne, 70 farmers came with 40 tractors at 7 a.m.
The FDSEA also affirms that the objective is not to invest in Paris. “We do not intend to go to the capital”, according to Cyrille Milard, president of the FDSEA of Seine-et-Marne, but rather to “block the main roads, all the highways on the outskirts of Paris. This will already be the case on a certain number of motorways, rather to the west of Île-de-France,” he explained. A position that has evolved in recent days. On Wednesday January 24, Cyrille Milard assured that he wanted to “rather communicate. But in 10 days, if the government has not given us clear and precise answers (…) we will block the entire Île-de-France”.
Blocking Paris this weekend “is one of the options”
The farmers say: the continuation of their actions will depend on the announcements of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, scheduled for this Friday. According to Samuel Vandaele, secretary general of the FDSEA77, “after the government’s announcements this Friday evening, the count will not be there. We are ready for a second round.” Blocking Paris “is one of the options, but normally there will be no strike operation on our side this weekend…a priori”, clarified Samuel Vandaele.
“Everything will depend on the way in which the answers are formulated. We do not exclude any option. We want to occupy the land but Paris is not the place where farmers live. If there was a form of contempt, of incapacity to answer the questions, things could evolve. At this stage, what matters is to occupy the ground to show that anger is there everywhere in France, and to obtain answers quickly” he indicated in the broadcast the 4V on France 2.
“The objective is not to annoy the French, it is to obtain rapid results because farmers today feel affected in their freedom to undertake, in the way of doing their job at daily. The administrative accumulation, the controls, the normative… all that is no longer tenable” conceded Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the FNSEA Wednesday January 24 on franceinfo a few hours before the publication of a precise list of demands.
The Agricultural Show and Rungis threatened?
The blockade of Rungis, the largest agricultural market in the world, “often comes back to mind”, said Véronique Le Floc’h, president of rural coordination, this Friday morning. She also recalled that “the Agricultural Show could also be blocked.” Wednesday January 24 on BFMTV , the trade unionist already estimated that the show “could be hot” this year. As a reminder, it will be held from February 24 to March 3 in Paris. Véronique Le Floc’h did not hesitate to question the actions of politicians: “there is a deadline and I think that all our politicians must be aware of it. If no response is provided quickly, they know very well although the Salon de l’Agriculture could be hot”. “Let our politicians wake up!” she also said. “We are ready to go to Paris, boycott the Agricultural Show, paralyze the capital with our tractors” already launched Jérôme Bayle, cattle breeder who became one of the leaders of the movement this Monday. Currently, no majority agricultural union has called for a boycott of the event.