tractors “surrounded” by the police, en route to Paris

While a meeting is planned in Matignon next Monday, dozens of farmers distributed in several processions begin the first blocking actions this Monday, January 6 on the outskirts of Paris.

Before dawn, this Monday, January 6, 2025, dozens of farmers took the road towards Paris to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the excessive standards and the free trade agreement with Mercosur. “Snail operation on the RN4 to the East of Paris”, indicates the Rural Coordination on its X account.

For the moment, the tractors have not managed to cross the gates of the capital, welcomed by the police force provided for this purpose. “The farmers are surrounded by the police,” judges the Rural Coordination on its social networks. On the national 10, in Yvelines, no less than 10 agricultural vehicles are stopped. Blockages were also seen on the A7 motorway near Lyon, according to information from France Télévisions.

The government conditions the payment of aid on the vote of a budget

This new mobilization comes just before the launch of the campaign for the elections to the chambers of agriculture. The vote which is planned for the end of January will make it possible to clarify the balance of power between the different unions in the sector, and perhaps to reshuffle the cards between them. The farmers must be received by Prime Minister François Bayrou on January 13. The tenant of Matignon will receivethe Peasant Confederation, Rural Coordination, FNSEA and Young Farmers. The goal is to resume discussions between the government and the agricultural world while the budget is being rewritten.

But this invitation is “too late” for Rural Coordination, which therefore called for mobilization from this Monday. On the 4V set on France 2, the Minister of Public Accounts Amélie de Montchalin assured that “as soon as the budget is voted, we will implement all the measures whether on transmission, dairy cows, on non-diesel -road “. In the absence of a budget, emergency mechanisms will be triggered.

Standards and Mercosur still in the sights

Farmers are called to demonstrate throughout France and block Paris, as confirmed by Sophie Lenaerts, president of the Rural Coordination in Oise, at the microphone of RTL. She denounces this invitation which comes too late: “We have been at the meeting points for a year now, demonstrating and explaining the problems of the agricultural world. We asked for a date [de rencontre] at the start of the school year, Sunday or Monday at the latest. If I’m not mistaken, there is the galette des rois on Monday at Matignon, but I think that if we know how to celebrate, we also know how to work and receive us,” she said. This weekend, the Rural Coordination announced that it hoped “to be able to return smoothly to the capital on Monday” and had “made requests for authorization which, for some, were not accepted”, explained Sophie Lenaerts, suggesting that some were therefore accepted.

The farmers’ demands are the same as at the end of 2024. These should have been, in part, taken into account in the 2025 budget. But Michel Barnier tried to force it through by using the article 49.3 of the Constitution, which led to the censorship of his government by the Assembly and the non-adoption of his budget. After several days of suspense to find a new Prime Minister, then further waiting to form a government, and finally the end of year holidays, the budget is once again under study and should be presented by February, according to François Bayrou.

Standards are first and foremost in the sights of farmers. “Stopping the over-transposition of European rules in France” and “controls on imports rather than farms” are among the main demands of the agricultural world, still to this day, recalled Sophie Lenaerts. Unsurprisingly, the definitive ratification of the free trade treaty between the European Union and Mercosur is also still denounced, the Rural Coordination confirms that it is firmly opposed to it.