French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will do more to meet the demands of angry farmers as the government mobilizes 15,000 police and gendarmes to deal with a threatened “siege” in Paris from Monday. I promised.
Meanwhile, farm workers in neighboring Belgium have stepped up their own direct action campaign, using tractors to block major highway junctions.
France’s two main agricultural unions, FNSEA and Jeune Farmers’ Union (Young Farmers’ Union), announced late Saturday that their members would “launch a siege of the capital for an undetermined period of time.”
Attal visited farms in the country’s west on Sunday in another attempt to calm growing anger among the country’s farmers after a first round of concessions announced on Friday failed to quell the crisis.
“I would like the government to clarify the situation and consider what additional measures can be taken” to address farmers’ complaints that they face unfair competition, he said.
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Attal agreed that it would be wrong to ban French farmers from using certain products that neighboring countries such as Italy still have the right to use. One complaint from farmers is that the country’s strict environmental regulations prevent them from using products that are still legal in other countries.
Farmers are also angry about lower wages, lower pensions and mountains of paperwork they have to deal with.
Acknowledging that his first concession proposal did not meet all their demands, Attal said: “I am determined to move forward, I am determined to move forward decisively and I am determined to move forward quickly.” ” he said.
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FNSEA leader Arnaud Rousseau made it clear that members expect more from the government.
“What we need is a decision that will change the software,” he told farmers during a visit to a group blocking the A16 motorway north of Paris.
Many roads across France remained closed Sunday, although some road closures were lifted over the weekend.
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Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced mass mobilization in response to peasant protests around Paris, while French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to fly to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport to the north of the capital and to the south. He said he hopes to open both Orly airports.
French paramilitary military police have already deployed armored vehicles outside the Rungis international food wholesale market south of Paris to prevent incursions there.
Police and gendarmes have also been ordered to prevent entry into Paris itself, Darmanin said.
He reiterated his call for police and military police to act with “moderation” and said they should not enter roadblocks unless it is to ensure safety.
Further south, Lyon city officials said they expected farmers to slow down and block highways.
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In neighboring Belgium, farmers blocked a major highway on Sunday as part of a direct action campaign to improve conditions.
Dozens of tractors sped through a major interchange, bringing traffic to a standstill on the E42 motorway just north of Namur in the south of the country.
The match between FC Genk and Sint-Truiden in the Belgian top flight was delayed by 30 minutes after farmers protested outside the soccer stadium.
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The complaints of Belgian farmers are similar to those of French farmers.
“It has become impossible to earn a decent wage,” said Pierre d’Arst, a spokesman for the FJA Young Farmers’ Federation, which organized the Gauslow protests.
“We want a common agricultural policy that takes into account the realities on the ground,” Dalst told AFP.
Farmer protests have also intensified in Germany, Poland, Romania and the Netherlands in recent weeks as support for the far right grows and the EU scrambles to address concerns ahead of this year’s elections.