In pictures: French farmers keep up Paris 'siege' in stand-off with govt
Protesting farmers encircled Paris with traffic-snarling barricades for a second day on Tuesday, using hundreds of lumbering tractors and hay bales to block highways leading to France's capital to pressure the government over fuel taxes, regulations and falling incomes.
Issued on: 30/01/2024 -
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: Shirli SITBON
The blockading of major thoroughfares around Paris – host of the Summer Olympics in six months – and protests elsewhere in France promised another difficult week for new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, less than a month into the job.
Attal's government was expected to announce new measures on Tuesday following talks with farmers' unions, after pro-agriculture measures unveiled last week fell short of their demands that producing food should be more lucrative, easier and fairer.
Farmers deployed convoys of tractors, trailers and even rumbling harvesters on Monday in what they described as a “siege" of Paris to gain more concessions. Some protesters came with reserves of food, water and tents to stay at barricades if the government doesn’t cede ground.
Read moreWhy French farmers are up in arms: fuel hikes, green regulation, EU directives
“We've come to defend French agriculture," said Christophe Rossignol, a 52-year-old farmer of organic orchards and other crops. Tractors at the barricade east of Paris were parked so they formed what looked like an ear of wheat when seen from the air.
“We go from crisis to crisis,” Rossignol said. Some vehicles carried placards declaring “No food without farmers” and “The end of us would mean famine for you”.
The barricades highlighted gulfs in economic and social opportunity between town and country in France. Protesters said they felt ignored by government ministers they accused of rarely venturing to farms and getting their shoes dirty.
The government announced a deployment of 15,000 police officers, mostly in the Paris region, to stop any effort by protesters to enter the capital. Officers and armored vehicles also were stationed at Paris’s hub for fresh food supplies, the Rungis market.
Paris region traffic authorities reported blockages on the A1 highway just north of the city's main international airport, on the A4 near the Disneyland theme park east of the capital and on other usually busy highways.
“Our goal isn’t to bother or to ruin French people’s lives,” Arnaud Rousseau, president of the influential FNSEA agricultural union, said on RTL radio. “Our goal is to put pressure on the government to rapidly find solutions out of the crisis.”
"Our end will be your hunger" reads the writing on a farmer's van parked on a highway near Argenteuil, north of Paris, on January 29, 2024. © Christophe Ena, APFarmers in neighbouring Belgium also set up barricades to stop traffic reaching some main highways, including into the capital, Brussels. Most protests are happening in the French-speaking part of the country.
A farmer from Tournai in western Belgium, Clémente Glorieux, said agricultural producers are “fed up. At some point, rules and constraints are imposed on us, whether administrative or financial. This has been harmful for a while now, so we’re starting to ask ourselves questions about our future”.
Glorieux and farmers at barricades around Paris said they aim to keep protesting at least until Thursday, when leaders from the European Union's 27 nations are to meet in Brussels for a summit focused on financial support for Ukraine.
"We have everything we need to eat, barbecues, and a wall of hay to shield ourselves from the wind. We have the equipment and we’re settling in alright!” said Paris-region farmer and protester Jean-Baptiste Benoit.
Read moreFewer, older, poorer: France’s farming crisis in numbers
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The movement in France is another manifestation of a global food crisis worsened by Russia's nearly two-year full-scale war in Ukraine, a major food producer.
French farmers assert that higher prices for fertilizer, energy and other inputs for growing crops and feeding livestock have eaten into their incomes.
Protesters also argue that France's massively subsidised farming sector is over-regulated and hurt by food imports from countries where agricultural producers face lower costs and fewer constraints. Rousseau used Ukrainian sugar producers as an example, saying their soaring exports to Europe since Russia invaded in February 2022 are “untenable” for European counterparts.
Taxi drivers with other grievances also organised drive-slow protests Monday, adding to the traffic chaos in the Paris area and other parts of the country. Authorities recommended that road users switch to public transport if possible.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
French government announces controls on foreign foods to calm farmers’ protests
30 January 2024
Farmers have been protesting across France to put pressure on the government to respond to their demands for protection against cheap imports.
France’s newly appointed prime minister said on Tuesday he is implementing controls on foreign food products in order to guarantee “fair competition” amid farmers’ protests.
In his general policy speech at the National Assembly, Gabriel Attal said “the goal is clear: guaranteeing fair competition, especially so regulations that are being applied to (French) farmers are also respected by foreign products”.
He also said food retailers who do not comply with a law meant to ensure a fair share of revenues for farmers will be fined, starting immediately.
Farmers have for days been protesting across France to put pressure on the government to respond to their demands for better remuneration for their produce, less red tape and protection against cheap imports.
With protesting farmers camped out on Tuesday at barricades around Paris, France’s government hoped to calm their anger with more concessions to their complaints that growing and rearing food has become too difficult and not sufficiently lucrative.
Mr Attal defended the farming sector in his first big speech to parliament laying out his government’s priorities, calling agriculture “our strength, and our pride. Not only because it feeds us in the literal sense but also because it constitutes one of the foundations of our identity, of our traditions”.
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