Less than a year after a large movement of anger in the countryside, which resulted in January in blockages of sections of highways in the country, the agricultural unions are once again calling on their troops to demonstrate but in dispersed order, approaching their professional elections which are being held in January. The National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA) and its ally Young Farmers (JA) have chosen to relaunch the mobilization on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 November.
Hit by poor harvests and emerging animal diseases, the unions regret the delay in implementing the 70 commitments made last year by the Attal government, and consider the standards still as complex and the income insufficient. If taxes on agricultural fuel (GNR) had been one of the drivers of mobilization last year, it is the outcome of the European Union’s proposed free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries (Brazil , Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay), which the European Commission wishes to sign before the end of the year, which could set things on fire this year. This agreement would notably allow Latin American countries to sell more beef, chicken or sugar without customs duties in Europe. “We will continue to oppose” the agreement, assured Emmanuel Macron this Sunday, traveling to Argentina before the G20, seeking to “reassure farmers”.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, for his part, warned that there would be “zero tolerance” in the event of a “sustainable blockage”, with a deployment of “mobile forces”.
Gatherings in front of prefectures or on roundabouts
On the ground, the mobilization, which could “last until mid-December”, will result in gatherings in front of prefectures and on squares or roundabouts called “Europe”. Thus, members of the FNSEA and the JA plan to symbolically occupy the “Europe Bridge” which connects Strasbourg to the German commune of Kehl. In Avignon, France Bleu also noted that several dozen tractors were temporarily blocking the Europe Bridge, between the departments of Gard and Vaucluse, this Monday morning.
These actions are above all symbolic, like the dumping of waste on Friday in front of the tax center of Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône) renamed the “Brazilian embassy”, or a funeral convoy planned for Monday in Gers.
“Fires of anger” and panel coverings
This Monday evening, “fires of anger” will be lit simultaneously in the departments and, locally, operators continue to cover up municipal panels or rename them after the names of South American Mercosur cities, such as in the Somme or Cantal. .
For example, nearly 400 panels were placed in front of the Haute-Saône prefecture.
Rare snail operations
Some snail operations could disrupt car traffic, such as in Île-de-France where a farmers’ demonstration is planned until Monday 2 p.m., particularly on the N118 towards Paris.
But the objective of the mobilization is not to “block” or “annoy” the French but to send the message that agriculture is today experiencing “an emergency situation, dramatic in certain places” , underlined Sunday the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau on BFMTV.
“If others have other modes of action, want to use violence or, as I have heard, want […] starving Toulouse is not our mode of action”, he stressed, in reference to calls from certain leaders of the Rural Coordination (2nd agricultural union) who have proposed in recent days to “encircle” or to “starve” certain metropolises.
Towards a blockage of food freight in the southwest?
The Rural Coordination has chosen to wait until its congress is held (Tuesday and Wednesday) to amplify its mobilization. The union promises “an agricultural revolt” with a “blockade of food freight” from Wednesday in the southwest if “no progress” is noted on the Mercosur file.
Opposed to free trade treaties for 25 years, the Confédération paysanne, the 3rd union force, took part in anti-Mercosur rallies in Brussels or Aveyron, demonstrating symbolically in front of the McDonald’s restaurant in Millau that its activists had dismantled in 1999.
This week, the Confederation is planning other peaceful actions to defend farmers’ income, access to land but also to demand support for the agro-ecological transition, against the logic of the majority unions which demand fewer environmental constraints and more water storage.