Farmers are demonstrating this Wednesday, November 20 for the third consecutive day in France, with the Rural Coordination in action, the government condemning “not acceptable” damage and blockages in six departments on Tuesday evening.
At the Boulou toll, very close to the Franco-Spanish border between Barcelona and Perpignan, the blockage installed on Tuesday noon in the Spain-France direction on the A9 is still holding. “We are still firmly attached to our action, we have the reinforcement of people who were not there yesterday,” Philippe Maydat, president of the Rural Coordination (CR) of the Pyrénées-Orientales, explained to AFP. For the second agricultural union, which launched a wave of actions on Tuesday, the aim is to block “in the long term” heavy goods vehicle traffic going from Spain to France. According to the French authorities, in conjunction with their Spanish counterparts, “diversions have been put in place to limit disruptions”.
Other actions from the CR are expected on Wednesday in Occitanie, where another blockade is announced at the Spanish border at Fos, in Haute-Garonne. At the other end of France, in Charleville-Mézières, farmers spent the night in front of the Ardennes prefecture, also at the call of the CR. They installed straw in cattle trucks and slept in sleeping bags, according to union leader Thierry Lebègue. They still plan to stay there for part of the day and then “probably go and block the borders and we hope that it will follow everywhere, as far as Germany”, he explained to AFP.
While the majority union alliance FNSEA-Young Farmers (JA) also demonstrated at the start of the week, with symbolic actions such as the lighting of “fires of anger” at nightfall, the CR chose methods of protest more virulent. On Tuesday, in addition to the blockage at the Spanish border, CR demonstrators dumped waste and manure in front of several prefectures. In Guéret, the front door of the French Biodiversity Office was forced open. According to images broadcast by the newspaper The Mountainthese were demonstrators with yellow caps and Rural Coordination vests.
Wednesday morning, the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard estimated on France 2 that the “acts of degradation, of blockage at the Spanish border” were “not acceptable” and risked undermining the “sympathy” of the French towards the occupation. “I think it’s not reasonable and it doesn’t serve the agricultural cause,” she added.
Call for new protests next week
Less than a year after a historic mobilization, agricultural unions believe they have not made enough progress. The majority alliance FNSEA-JA also plans to demonstrate again “next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday” to denounce the obstacles to agriculture”, announced on franceinfo on Wednesday the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau. Next week, “in each department”, these unions “will target constraints or obstacles that they consider important. It could be representatives of the State, agencies, it could be links with administrations. It is they who will decide”, sketched Arnaud Rousseau.
“The objective is once again to put pressure on to denounce today what is not acceptable. And, I repeat, always with respect for property and people,” he added, maintaining to distinguish itself from the actions organized by the CR. In the countryside, “everyone is at the end of their tether. And when you are at the end of their tether, to call for chaos, I consider it to be totally irresponsible,” he said on franceinfo.
The day before, FNSEA and JA had hailed “a first victory” after the announcement of the holding of a debate followed by a vote on November 26 in the National Assembly on the free trade treaty negotiated between the EU and of the Mercosur countries, largely rejected as it stands by the French political class.
These farmers’ demonstrations are being held a few weeks before their professional elections, which will determine the governance of the chambers of agriculture and the subsidies paid to each. At the head of three chambers of agriculture (Lot-et-Garonne, Vienne, Haute-Vienne), the CR intends to “take 15 to 20” from the FNSEA following the January elections.