The various agricultural unions are calling for mobilization in the days to come. The form and dates are starting to become clearer.
This end of the year risks being marked by strike movements. Farmers in particular intend to mobilize. From mid-October, the FNSEA-JA union alliance called for national actions “from mid-November”. In particular, they want to contest the possible signing of the European Union’s free trade agreement with Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia), which could result during the G20 in Brazil on November 18 and 19, the France is however opposed to it as it stands.
The signing of this agreement could authorize the partial or total elimination of customs duties on the import of meat, sugar or even corn, as well as the establishment of Latin American beef import quotas of some 100,000 tonnes per year. Farmers fear unfair competition, but also cheap animal breeding conditions, and deplore the importation of more and more foreign products into France, which would increase pressure on prices.
Mobilizations but no highway blockages
As of this Wednesday, November 13, the Confédération paysanne, the third union force, has called for a rally in front of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Paris. The Rural Coordination, the second agricultural union, has, for its part, promised “an agricultural revolt” from November 19. They called on farmers to demonstrate that day in front of the prefectures. At the end of this demonstration, the union expects a “strong and immediate decision from the State”, otherwise blockages from the “French food freight”, i.e. food transport, could occur as early as November 20 “in order to give the government a taste of what our country will be like, tomorrow, without a farmer”.
The president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, for his part launched, on France Interthis Wednesday, a call for mobilization “from Monday” in “all departments”. However, he assured that it was not a question of “blocking the highways”, as was the case last winter, but of addressing the public authorities. He assures that the trade agreement with Mercosur will have “dramatic consequences” for agriculture. The planned actions will be further detailed during a press conference in Paris this Wednesday afternoon.