THE SEIGE OF PARIS

800 tractors besiege Paris and set lorry ablaze

Around 800 tractors have surrounded the capital as farmers protest what they say are stringent environmental regulations, red tape and low pay.

Near Beauvais, north of Paris, dozens of tractors lined the highway in one of many such protests across the country. In the event of major disruption, Paris would only have three days’ food supplies, according to government agency Ademe.

Farmer protests converge on Paris as French government scrambles to address concerns

RFI
Mon, 29 January 2024 



French farmers will launch an indefinite "siege" of Paris beginning this Monday, choking off major highways and moving toward the capital as they demand better working conditions.

For days, nationwide protests have flared across France – Europe's largest agriculture producer, – with farmers angered in part by red tape and environmental policies they say are hurting their bottom lines and rendering them unable to compete with less stringent neighbours.

Across the country, farmers have used tractors and trucks to block roads and jam traffic. They plan to step up their pressure campaign by establishing eight chokepoints along the major arteries to Paris by Monday afternoon.

The government plans to mobilise some 15,000 police and paramilitary gendarmes in response, with the forces told to show "moderation".

French PM to visit farm as agricultural unions vow Paris 'siege'

"We don't intend to allow government buildings, or tax collection buildings, or grocery stores to be damaged or trucks transporting foreign produce to be stopped. Obviously, that is unacceptable," French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said ahead of the planned siege.

He said President Emmanuel Macron had instructed the security operation to ensure both Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport to the north and Orly to the south remain open, and the Rungis international wholesale food market south of Paris continues to operate.


Read more on RFI English

Read also:
Why are French farmers angry and who will reap the rewards?
Angry farmers to stage tractor blockade of Paris as ministers mull solutions
French farmers block roads around Paris to protest low food prices

Protesting farmers block major roads into Paris
Jurgen HECKER with AFP bureaus
Mon, 29 January 2024 

PM Attal has promised more action to appease farmers (ALAIN JOCARD)

French farmers choked off major motorways around Paris on Monday, threatening to blockade the capital in an intensifying standoff with the government over working conditions.

In recent weeks there has been a slew of protests in France, a major agricultural producer, by farmers angry about incomes, red tape and environmental policies they say undermine their ability to compete with other countries.

Protesting farmers started the operation by blocking the A13 highway to the west of the capital, the A4 to the east and the A6 on which hundreds of tractors rolled towards Paris from the south.

By midafternoon they appeared to have met their objective of establishing eight chokepoints on major roads into Paris, according to Sytadin, a traffic monitoring service.

"We need answers," said Karine Duc, a farmer from the southwestern Lot-et-Garonne department as she joined a convoy of tractors heading for Paris.

"This is the final battle for farming. It's a question of survival," she told AFP.

One banner on a tractor in the convoy said: "We will not die in silence."

- Police to protect airports -

In response, the government ordered the deployment of 15,000 police and gendarmes.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told security forces to show restraint, but he also warned the farmers not to interfere with strategic spots.

"We're not going to allow government buildings or tax offices or supermarkets to be damaged or lorries transporting foreign produce to be stopped," he said.

Darmanin said the protests would also not be allowed to affect Paris's Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, or the Rungis international wholesale food market south of the city.

Armoured police vehicles were deployed to Rungis on Monday after some farmers threatened to "occupy" it.

Police and gendarmes are also under orders to prevent any incursion into Paris itself, Darmanin said.

The government has been trying to keep discontent among farmers from spreading ahead of European Parliament elections in June, which are seen as a key test for President Emmanuel Macron's government.

Macron called a meeting with several ministers Monday afternoon to discuss the situation, his office said.

Macron is also set to meet with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the crisis and support measures that farmers are demanding at the EU level, his office said.

During a visit to a farm on Sunday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal sought again to address farmers' concerns after a raft of concessions announced on Friday failed to defuse the crisis.

"I want us to clarify things and see what extra measures we can take," he said.

Government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said "new measures will be taken tomorrow" to help farmers.

- 'Given us nibbles' -

Farmer leaders said the government's responses so far were insufficient.

"The prime minister has given us nibbles, and now we'd like him to work a bit harder and give us more," said Arnaud Lepoil, a member of the leading farmers' union FNSEA.

Arnaud Rousseau, the FNSEA's leader, and Young Farmers union boss Arnaud Gaillot were to meet with Attal later Monday, sources told AFP.

"Our goal is not to annoy French people or make their lives difficult but to put pressure on the government," Rousseau told the RTL broadcaster.

Earlier, around 30 activists from environmental group Greenpeace launched smoke grenades on Paris's Place de la Concorde near the Champs-Elysees.

They also unfurled a banner in support of the farmers before being escorted away by police.

Taxi drivers staged their own protest movement on Monday against what they say is insufficient remuneration for the transport of patients by the French health services.

Their go-slows added to the disruption on motorways.

In neighbouring Belgium, farmers have stepped up their own campaign, and in recent weeks farmers' protests have also grown in Germany, Poland, Romania and the Netherlands.

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As hundreds of tractors chug towards Paris in protest, the city is on the verge of being 'choked'

Sky News
Updated Mon, 29 January 2024


Paris is slowly being encircled.

From a variety of directions, the farmers are heading towards the French capital, bringing their anger to the heart of the nation.

Eight hundred tractors surround the city.

Since these protests erupted, they have, from a Parisian perspective, happened in other places, to other people.

The motorways across much of the nation may have been brought to a standstill, but not here. Not until now.

And while the fury of farmers may resonate loudly in those huge stretches of France where agriculture is still central to everyday life, that hasn't happened so much in Paris.

This extraordinary metropolis is, like London or New York, beset with boundless urban problems. It takes a lot for Parisians to start worrying about French farmers.

But now, that surely will change. As tractors and other agricultural vehicles ease their way noisily towards the capital, so Paris frets.

Could Paris be 'starved' by the protests?

The protest organisers have designated eight "choke points" that they are using to upset the flow of traffic.

The idea is, depending on who you believe, either to cause enough disruption to focus the minds of millions across the city or, more bluntly, to "starve" the population.

The spectre of starvation is an exaggeration, of course, but even the government's own agency, Ademe, has estimated that Paris has only three days' supplies of food, were it to be cut off.

Hyperbole is as much part of this protest as any other. But the rhetoric, backed up by the sight of hundreds of tractors driving down the main highways towards Paris, has certainly focused attention.

Aware of the protesters' plans to encircle Paris, the government has called up 15,000 police officers. That's not just to hold back the farmers but also to reassure a nervous city.

The government has held an emergency meeting of ministers. Tensions are high.

Giant fresh food market 'is the target'

And so we find ourselves standing outside Rungis International Market, an absolutely enormous complex dedicated to the sale of fresh food.

This is Europe's biggest produce market - the second-largest wholesale food market in the world. And right now, it is being protected by armoured police vehicles.

The market is a controversial focus for the farmers' protests.

Some believe it should be left alone, seeing as it is so key to their own prosperity.

But others maintain that the only way Paris will understand the value of its farming community is when it is cut off from their produce.

"Rungis market is the target," said Veronique Le Floc'h, president of Rural Co-ordination, an agricultural trade union.

Read more:
Woman sitting on haystack killed after car hits protesting farmers' roadblock

Nothing left to chance

The armoured vehicles sit outside the front entrance of the market, dark blue and looming.

Each has a turret, capable of firing grenades and even bullets. They are made of uncompromising thick metal. There is nothing gentle about this.

Around them are arranged the vans of the CRS, the French riot police familiar from so many protests over the years.

Not far away, a water cannon has been parked up. Not much is being left to chance here.

So far, the police response to this growing protest movement has been conciliatory. Blockades have been tolerated, disruption accepted.

But the simple truth is this: what can be accepted in the provinces will not be tolerated on the streets of Paris.

The spectre of the French capital being held to ransom is politically unacceptable.

Gabriel Attal, the 34-year-old prime minister, who's only been in the job for a few weeks, is already confronted with his first crisis of leadership.

But while the politicians and the police mull their response, so the tractors rumble forward.

They have already erected blockades on the main highways in and out of Paris. And more farmers are on the way.

French farmers lay siege to Paris with vow to cut off food

Henry Samuel

TELEGRAPH
Mon, 29 January 2024

Hundreds of tractors laid siege to Paris on Monday as farmers furious at French and European rules said they intended to “starve Parisians”.

Long lines of tractors blocked motorways at eight entry points to the city as one militant union promised to take control of the world’s biggest fresh food market.

“[Blockading Paris] will happen naturally. Parisians are going to be hungry. The goal is to starve Parisians. That’s it”, said Benoît Durand, a grain farmer.

Mr Durand, like thousands of others, said he was struggling against low income, red tape and environmental policies that were pushing costs up. President Emmanuel Macron, who is under mounting pressure to reassert his authority, was set to announce new measures for farmers as early as Tuesday, the Elysée said.

The protests follow similar action in other European countries, including Germany and Poland, ahead of European Parliament elections in June in which the hard-Right are making gains.

Protesters hang an effigy as they gather during a blockade on the A4 near Paris on Monday night - REUTERS

The main farming unions do not back strangling Paris’s food supplies but on Monday night angry farmers refused to move, setting up barbecues on motorways and sleeping in trailers.

In the event of major disruption, Paris would only have three days’ food supplies, as deliveries are made every day, according to Ademe, a government agency.

A group of 90 tractors left Agen, southwestern France, on Monday morning with the aim of “occupying” the Rungis food market, where more than 8,000 tons of goods pass through to feed nearly 12 million people every day.

The farmers are upset about increasing regulations hurting their livelihoods - REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

The tractors were due to reach the market, dubbed “the belly of Paris”, by Tuesday night or Wednesday at the latest. Their ranks were expected to swell considerably along the way. Some 10,000 farmers and 5,000 farm vehicles took part in action around the country, French police sources said on Monday.

Armoured military vehicles were dispatched to the market and 15,000 police and gendarmes were deployed around the country to prevent tractors from entering Paris and other major cities.

Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, said he had ordered security forces to show moderation, but also warned farmers not to cross certain red lines. These included cutting off Paris’s main airports or Rungis.

“We don’t intend to allow government buildings, or tax collection buildings, or grocery stores to be damaged or trucks transporting foreign produce to be stopped. Obviously, that is unacceptable,” he said.

The government has tried to appease the protesters with a string of concessions in recent days. On Friday, it dropped plans to gradually reduce state subsidies on agricultural diesel and promised a reduction in red tape and an easing of environmental regulations.

Unions said that was not enough and pledged to step up the pressure.

Spirits were high on Monday night on the A1 highway at Chennevières-lès-Louvres, within sight of Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, 25 kilometres north of Paris.

As night fell, farmers warmed their hands around bonfires and barbecued sausages as they sipped wine and beer. Behind, their tractors formed an impregnable convoy blocking off the capital.


As fires raged, Soft Cell’s UK hit “Tainted Love” and Madness’ “One Step Beyond” blasted over the farmers’ sound system as they chomped on beef burgers and temperatures approached zero.

“We’re here because we’ve had enough, we want to defend our pay, we’ve had enough of all the excessive red tape that’s even worse in France than the rest of Europe,” said Robin Leduc, 30, who runs a 200-hectare farm in Canly, not far from the tractor checkpoint.

“The government has to act fast then we can all go home as we have work to do on our farms.”

Mr Leduc said he had found an unlikely British ally in the shape of Jeremy Clarkson, who has gained plaudits for the Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm, which charts his attempts at running a 1,000-acre farm in the Cotswolds.

“We need a French celebrity to do the same as Jeremy Clarkson. Everything he explains in it is why we are here today. You may have left the EU, but we share many of the same problems regarding all these environmental rules.”

Gendarmes look on as the protests continued into the night - Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

The government has been trying to keep discontent among farmers from spreading ahead of European Parliament elections in June, seen as a key test for Mr Macron’s government.

On Monday, the government said it would push its EU peers to agree to ease regulations on fallow farmland. Farmers must currently meet certain conditions to receive EU subsidies, including a requirement to devote four per cent of farmland to “non-productive” areas where nature can recover.

With cheap imports a burning issue, Mr Macron’s office also said he had told the European Commission it was impossible to conclude trade deal negotiations with South America’s Mercosur bloc. The president’s office believes it has an understanding that the EU has put an end to the talks.

The French president will make a push for more pro-farming policies at an EU summit on Thursday.

The French government has warned the farmers not to cross red lines including blocking airports or the capital's largest market - Loock francois / Alamy Live News

Henri Haquin, 43, who runs a 300-hectare farm in Bregy, north of Paris, said: “We get the feeling that Brussels doesn’t understand what we do and comes up with new laws every month that are difficult to understand and work with.”

He also has a real estate business to make ends meet, saying he won’t make a profit from his farm until he has paid off bank loans in a decade.

“Life on the farm is more and more difficult to make ends meet. We fear for the new generations. The main problem is unfair competition, lots of products from elsewhere without the same norms,” he said. “This is the only way we’ve found to get the government going”.

However, he insisted: “We clearly don’t want to starve Parisians. Only a small minority wants to block Rungis. For now, 90 per cent of the French are behind us. If we do that we’ll lose that support. We simply want to put pressure on the government and get solutions and go back on some laws we find completely ridiculous and inapplicable.

“All of the farmers in Europe are starting to move and say they can’t work with European laws as they are and I hope this can change things.”

Protests have taken place elsewhere in Europe, including in neighbouring Belgium, where farmers have stepped up their campaign against the administrative burden placed on them, including disrupting motorway traffic at the Daussoulx interchange near Namur.

The Daussoulx interchange in Belgium was blocked on Monday - ERIC LALMAND / Belga / AFP

Véronique Le Floc’h, president of France’s hard-Right-leaning Coordination Rurale union, said on Monday that farmers would target the Rungis market to “show the consequences if there are no more farmers tomorrow”.

She said that she wanted to “identify the proportion of imports and what type of products come in” to the market. In recent days, farmers have seized shipments from Belgium, Spain and Poland, scattering them across the highway and setting fire to them.

Marc Fesneau, the French agriculture minister, outlined a list of government “priorities” for farmers on Monday. These included tougher inspections on provenance of food products and “Frenchifiying farm products”, without providing more details.

EXPLAINER-Why are French farmers protesting?

Mon, 29 January 2024 
By Gus Trompiz, Sybille de La Hamaide

PARIS, Jan 29 (Reuters) - French farmers blocked major highways to Paris on Monday as they pursue protests over a range of grievances, despite several measures announced by the government.

Here are some of the issues that have prompted the protest movement and what the government could do next.

WHY ARE FARMERS PROTESTING?

Farmers in France, the EU's biggest agricultural producer, say they are not being paid enough and are choked by excessive regulation on environmental protection. Some of their concerns, like competition from cheaper imports and environmental rules, are shared by producers in the rest of the EU while other issues such as food price negotiations are more specific to France.

COSTS Farmers argue that a push by the government and retailers to bring down food inflation has left many producers unable to cover high costs for energy, fertiliser and transport.

A government plan to phase out a tax break for farmers on diesel fuel, as part of a wider energy transition policy, was also a flashpoint.

IMPORTS

Large imports from Ukraine, for which the EU has waived quotas and duties since Russia's invasion, and renewed negotiations to conclude a trade deal between the EU and South American bloc Mercosur, have fanned discontent about unfair competition in sugar, grain and meat.

The imports are resented for pressuring European prices while not meeting environmental standards imposed on EU farmers.

ENVIRONMENT, RED TAPE

Farmers take issue both with EU subsidy rules, such as an incoming requirement to leave 4% of farmland fallow, and what they see as France's overcomplicated implementation of EU policy, such as in restoring hedges.

Green policies are seen as contradicting goals to become more self-sufficient in production of food and other essential goods in the light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Rows over irrigation projects and criticism about animal welfare and pesticides have heightened feelings among an ageing French farmer population as being disregarded by society.

WHAT HAS THE GOVERNMENT DONE SO FAR?

The government is under pressure to defuse the crisis ahead of European elections in June and the annual Paris farm show in late February. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Jan. 26 the scrapping of diesel tax increases for farmers. He also set out steps to reduce red tape and offered extra aid including for farmers affected by a cattle disease in the south.

WHAT COULD HAPPEN NEXT?

The initial announcements drew mixed reactions and farmers' unions have called for protests to continue.

The government is maintaining a tolerant stance towards the protests, despite some violent incidents. It has ordered police, however, to protect Paris' airports and wholesale food market after calls for them to be targeted.

The government has promised further measures within days.

Further support for wine producers hit by falling consumption is being studied while additional measures for livestock are also expected.

With most agricultural policies and subsidies determined at EU level, Paris is seeking concessions from its partners, such as trying to build support for a waiver on the fallow land requirement, an issue President Emmanuel Macron could push at a leaders' summit on Thursday. On trade, another area run at EU level, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau called for measures to prevent imports from Ukraine destabilising EU markets, notably in sugar, poultry and eggs. That marks a shift by Paris, previously opposed to moves by eastern EU countries to limit flows of Ukrainian produce.

WHERE ELSE IN EUROPE ARE FARMERS PROTESTING?

Traffic around the Belgian capital was also disrupted by angry farmers on Monday and about a dozen tractors made it through to Brussels' EU area where they honked loudly.

Farmers stopped about five trucks with Spanish vegetables and dumped the produce near the distribution centre of Belgian retailer Colruyt near Brussels, Belgian media reported. Germany has also faced tensions, with protests erupting after a government decision to phase out a tax break on agricultural diesel as it tried to balance its 2024 budget. Earlier this month Berlin was brought to a near standstill as one of its central avenues filled with trucks and tractors. Farmers and truck drivers in Romania have also taken action this month with protests against high business costs blocking access to a border crossing with Ukraine. (Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Sybille de La Hamaide; editing by David Evans and Kylie MacLellan)