The leaders of the two largest farmers’ unions in France announced a blockade of all main roads to Paris on Monday, which they described as a “siege of the capital.” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal signaled the possibility of further concessions.
French farmers are demanding higher prices for their products, offsetting the increase in production costs and greater protection against foreign competition. They found the government’s proposals put forward on Friday unsatisfactory.
Leaders of trade unions, including the largest farmers’ union headquarters, FNSEA, announced that on Monday at 14 “will begin an indefinite siege” of Paris.
Paris will be on lockdown
All main roads to the capital will be blocked by farmers, they announced.
Attal visited a cattle farm in the Indre and Loire department in the center of the country on Sunday. At an informal meeting with the Prime Minister, farmers complained, among other things: to falling profits, low pensions, bureaucratic complications and foreign competition.
The head of government said that the authorities would analyze the possibility of introducing “additional measures” to protect French farmers from competition, AFP reported.
Farmers are not satisfied with cooperation with the government
FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau told La Tribune that Attal “only took into account some of the 122 demands we presented to him.”
AFP emphasizes that the union leadership has not yet made a decision on whether to continue the protests throughout the country.
France is the largest agricultural producer in the EU, the Associated Press reported, emphasizing that farmers’ protests in this country are a symptom of rural dissatisfaction also in other EU countries. The influential and heavily subsidized sector is becoming a hot topic ahead of the June European Parliament elections, with populist and far-right parties hoping to capitalize on farmers’ dissatisfaction with free trade agreements and the burden caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to AP.
