Farmers plan ‘siege of Paris’

France’s main farming unions called to blockade the capital and strategic points in the region on Monday, following the prime minister’s latest proposals, which they deemed insufficient, leading to an emergency meeting at the Interior Ministry on Sunday evening to prevent a possible ‘siege of Paris’.

The revolt by French farmers is likely to go up a notch on Monday, three days after Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s announcements aimed at meeting main demands and a week after the start of the movement.

“We need to go much further”, insisted Arnaud Rousseau, president of the majority FNSEA union, at a motorway blockade on Sunday.

“As long as these demands are not met, the mobilisation will be total”, he added.

On Friday evening, during a trip near Toulouse, the starting point for the demonstrations, Attal promised several measures such as simplifying standards, complying with the Egalim laws – to ensure better remuneration for producers -, speeding up the payment of aid and even detaxing non-road diesel (GNR).

“We have decided to put agriculture above everything else”, he insisted, assuring us that “other decisions” will be taken “in the coming weeks”.

‘Important defensive measures’

For the unions, who applaud certain measures such as the detaxation of GNR but insist these measures are insufficient, the mobilisation must continue.

On Saturday, the FNSEA and Jeunes agriculteurs (JA) in the greater Paris area announced a “siege of the capital”, i.e. a blockade of “all major roads leading to the capital”, “for an indefinite period”.

The Coordination Rurale, the second largest union after the FNSEA, threatens to blockade Rungis (Val-de-Marne), Europe’s largest fresh produce market, which supplies food to 10 million people in the Paris region.

Faced with this threat, the government is on the alert. On Sunday evening, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin called a meeting of various ministers, including Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau, to anticipate the various scenarios for this high-risk week.

Darmanin also instructed the forces of law and order to deploy “major defensive measures” to prevent Rungis from being blocked, as well as the airports in the Ile-de-France region, and to “prohibit any entry into Paris”.

The ministry specified that the government would act “with great restraint” and would intervene “only as a last resort” in the event of any excesses.

Last Tuesday, after the death of a farmer following a road accident on a blockade, everyone is fearing another tragedy during a possible “siege of Paris”.

The unions say they have planned for “military organisation”.

(Hugo Struna | Euractiv.fr)