PETITE BOURGEOIS PROTEST
A car rammed into a roadblock put up by protesting farmers in southwestern France on Tuesday, killing a woman and her teenage daughter, and seriously injuring her husband.
Issued on: 23/01/2024 -
By:NEWS WIRES
Farmers have been blocking roads across the country in protest at what they say are deteriorating conditions in the agriculture sector.
The three occupants of the car that crashed into the barrier on a motorway in the southwestern department of Ariege were taken into police custody on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, police said.
The vehicle was travelling on the dual-lane carriageway leading to the roadblock despite it being clearly marked as closed to traffic because of the protest, Ariege prefect Simon Bertoux told reporters.
But a local prosecutor, Olivier Mouysset, said that early results of the investigation suggested that the car, carrying a couple and a friend, had not rammed the barrier intentionally.
In the dark, the car ran into a wall made of bales of straw at the roadblock, hit the three people and only came to a halt when it crashed into the trailer of a tractor, Mouysset said.
The 35-year-old woman who was killed was a member of the powerful FNSEA farmers union, which has been leading nationwide protests.
Her 14-year old daughter was taken to hospital where she later died. The wounded husband is 40.
'At speed'
A police source added that the car was travelling "at speed" as it drove into the barrier.
A test showed that the driver, a 44-year-old man, was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
All three occupants of the car are Armenian nationals, Bertoux said.
The broader southwestern Occitanie region has been a focal point of farmers' protests in recent days.
Read moreWhy French farmers are up in arms: fuel hikes, green regulation, EU directives
Farming union representatives on Monday met Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to discuss their grievances, which include low food prices, rising charges for farmers, higher fuel prices and environmental protection rules that they say are unacceptable.
Tensions have been running high, with the FNSEA announcing protests all this week and beyond if the government failed to respond to its demands.
"In the current circumstances that farming has to endure, this kind of drama is difficult to bear," said FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau, who first reported the incident.
'Nation is devastated'
At his meeting with the farming representatives on Monday evening, Attal made no immediate announcement but promised that a number of measures would be unveiled by the end of the week, according to Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau.
"The nation is devastated" by the accident, Attal said on Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.
President Emmanuel Macron said he has asked his government "to offer concrete solutions" to the farmers' problems.
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"My thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones who are mourning them," he said, also on X, calling Tuesday's accident "a drama that has devastated us all".
The FNSEA's Rousseau said the farmers' mobilisation would "not be affected by this drama" and that "the struggle continues".
Several motorways across the country were blocked by tractors on Tuesday.
Protesting farmers at roadblocks observed minutes of silence for those killed in the accident
(AFP)
A car rammed into a roadblock put up by protesting farmers in southwestern France on Tuesday, killing a woman and her teenage daughter, and seriously injuring her husband.
Issued on: 23/01/2024 -
A view of the destroyed vehicle that killed a woman and her teenage daughter at a roadblock in southwest France on January 23, 2024. © Valentine Chapuis, AFP
By:NEWS WIRES
Farmers have been blocking roads across the country in protest at what they say are deteriorating conditions in the agriculture sector.
The three occupants of the car that crashed into the barrier on a motorway in the southwestern department of Ariege were taken into police custody on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, police said.
The vehicle was travelling on the dual-lane carriageway leading to the roadblock despite it being clearly marked as closed to traffic because of the protest, Ariege prefect Simon Bertoux told reporters.
But a local prosecutor, Olivier Mouysset, said that early results of the investigation suggested that the car, carrying a couple and a friend, had not rammed the barrier intentionally.
In the dark, the car ran into a wall made of bales of straw at the roadblock, hit the three people and only came to a halt when it crashed into the trailer of a tractor, Mouysset said.
The 35-year-old woman who was killed was a member of the powerful FNSEA farmers union, which has been leading nationwide protests.
Her 14-year old daughter was taken to hospital where she later died. The wounded husband is 40.
'At speed'
A police source added that the car was travelling "at speed" as it drove into the barrier.
A test showed that the driver, a 44-year-old man, was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
All three occupants of the car are Armenian nationals, Bertoux said.
The broader southwestern Occitanie region has been a focal point of farmers' protests in recent days.
Read moreWhy French farmers are up in arms: fuel hikes, green regulation, EU directives
Farming union representatives on Monday met Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to discuss their grievances, which include low food prices, rising charges for farmers, higher fuel prices and environmental protection rules that they say are unacceptable.
Tensions have been running high, with the FNSEA announcing protests all this week and beyond if the government failed to respond to its demands.
"In the current circumstances that farming has to endure, this kind of drama is difficult to bear," said FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau, who first reported the incident.
'Nation is devastated'
At his meeting with the farming representatives on Monday evening, Attal made no immediate announcement but promised that a number of measures would be unveiled by the end of the week, according to Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau.
"The nation is devastated" by the accident, Attal said on Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.
President Emmanuel Macron said he has asked his government "to offer concrete solutions" to the farmers' problems.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe
"My thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones who are mourning them," he said, also on X, calling Tuesday's accident "a drama that has devastated us all".
The FNSEA's Rousseau said the farmers' mobilisation would "not be affected by this drama" and that "the struggle continues".
Several motorways across the country were blocked by tractors on Tuesday.
Protesting farmers at roadblocks observed minutes of silence for those killed in the accident
(AFP)
PETITE BOURGEOIS REACTIONARY PROTEST
Why French farmers are up in arms: fuel hikes, green regulation, EU directives
Why French farmers are up in arms: fuel hikes, green regulation, EU directives
FASCISM IS PETITE BOURGEOIS REACTION
French farmers have engaged in a standoff with the government to express anger over a perceived lack of respect, rising costs and suffocating EU regulation. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal seeks to calm the protesters while the far-right National Rally hopes to take advantage of their anger, just five months before the European elections.
Issued on: 23/01/2024 -
French farmers have engaged in a standoff with the government to express anger over a perceived lack of respect, rising costs and suffocating EU regulation. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal seeks to calm the protesters while the far-right National Rally hopes to take advantage of their anger, just five months before the European elections.
Issued on: 23/01/2024 -
A woman passes by a farmer as he takes part in a protest against taxation and declining income, in Toulouse on January 16, 2024. © Ed Jones, AFP
By:Louis CHAHUNEAU
France’s farmers are angry with their government. Several dozen of them have been blocking a portion of the A64 highway near Toulouse since January 18 to express their anger. Then an explosion between Thursday and Friday night blew out the windows of a local government building in the nearby city of Carcassonne. Two graffiti tags left at the scene attributed the act to a mysterious collective of winemakers.
"It is not insignificant that this [the protest movement] comes from the south of the country," said François Purseigle, a sociology professor at the French agronomy faculty of the Toulouse Institute of Technology. "Farmers are on the frontline of climate change, with successive droughts taking place, and they have been repeatedly told they are not doing enough for the environment."
Read more Can technological fixes solve France’s water crisis amid record droughts?
Surprised by the farmers’ blockades, France’s government announced a delay of “several weeks’” for reforms announced over a year ago to help farmers. The stakes are high: France lost 20% (101,000) of its farms between 2010 and 2020, according to a recent survey.
“Many young people today prefer to avoid self-employment because they would earn less than a farm employee, and this should not be the case,” said Yohann Barbe, a cattle farmer in the Vosges department in northeastern France. Successive governments have been struggling to stop the phenomenon. “Nearly 200,000 farmers will be of retirement age by 2026, but there are not enough buyers [to take over their farms],” said Purseigle. “There is a gap between Macron’s speech on 'civic rearmament' and the reality of farmers who feel completely disarmed.”
‘We can’t expect farmers to shoulder the ecological transition’
The vulnerabilities of farmers are increasing day by day. “Emmanuel Macron made a great speech on agriculture during a meeting at Rungis International Market in 2017, but never acted upon it. We're fed up,” Barbe said.
Protestors say their movement, which originated in the southwest, is bound to spread nationwide, especially if the government does not quickly respond to their grievances. These include the government’s move to increase taxes on agricultural diesel, a polluting fuel, used by farmers, that has long benefited from government tax breaks. The move will directly affect the sector's production costs.
The European Union targeted
Also jarring to farmers are the mounting environmental standards put on agricultural production. They point out that the frequent transposition of European directives make national standards even stricter than European standards. “We are not against more supervision, but we need compensation on prices,” said Barbe. This comes at the risk of losing to foreign competition. France imported more than one chicken out of two consumed in 2022 from abroad (notably, from Belgium, Poland and Brazil).
The farmers are also holding the European Union itself responsible for their situation. With a budget of €53.7 billion for the 2023-2027 mandate, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. Farmers describe it as dysfunctional. “For the first time, the CAP subsidies have still not yet been paid to all our farmers in 2023. Several farmers are having problems with their bank or their suppliers, who they weren’t able to pay as a result," said Barbe.
The far-right National Rally did not hesitate to use this anger against Brussels to launch its campaign for the European elections in June. Jordan Bardella, chief of the National Rally, spent last Sunday with workers on the wine-growing lands of Médoc.
“The European Union and the Europe of Macron (want) the death of our agriculture,” said Bardella. "French farmers are exposed to unfair competition from products from around the world which don't respect the strict standards that they (French producers) have to observe," he added.
For Purseigle, the farmers' anger will be a major theme in the coming European elections. “If they have succeeded in one area, it is in putting agricultural issues on the political agenda,” he said. The newly appointed Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also rushed to the Rhône department in east-central France on Saturday before receiving the FNSEA and the Young Farmers Union Monday in an effort to calm the discontent. “Politics is also about responding to emotions,” Purseigle noted.
As for the farmers, they have already announced they won't hesitate to block Paris and disrupt the Paris International Agricultural Show, which begins on February 24, if the government ignores their demands.
This article was translated from the original in French.
By:Louis CHAHUNEAU
France’s farmers are angry with their government. Several dozen of them have been blocking a portion of the A64 highway near Toulouse since January 18 to express their anger. Then an explosion between Thursday and Friday night blew out the windows of a local government building in the nearby city of Carcassonne. Two graffiti tags left at the scene attributed the act to a mysterious collective of winemakers.
"It is not insignificant that this [the protest movement] comes from the south of the country," said François Purseigle, a sociology professor at the French agronomy faculty of the Toulouse Institute of Technology. "Farmers are on the frontline of climate change, with successive droughts taking place, and they have been repeatedly told they are not doing enough for the environment."
Read more Can technological fixes solve France’s water crisis amid record droughts?
Surprised by the farmers’ blockades, France’s government announced a delay of “several weeks’” for reforms announced over a year ago to help farmers. The stakes are high: France lost 20% (101,000) of its farms between 2010 and 2020, according to a recent survey.
“Many young people today prefer to avoid self-employment because they would earn less than a farm employee, and this should not be the case,” said Yohann Barbe, a cattle farmer in the Vosges department in northeastern France. Successive governments have been struggling to stop the phenomenon. “Nearly 200,000 farmers will be of retirement age by 2026, but there are not enough buyers [to take over their farms],” said Purseigle. “There is a gap between Macron’s speech on 'civic rearmament' and the reality of farmers who feel completely disarmed.”
‘We can’t expect farmers to shoulder the ecological transition’
The vulnerabilities of farmers are increasing day by day. “Emmanuel Macron made a great speech on agriculture during a meeting at Rungis International Market in 2017, but never acted upon it. We're fed up,” Barbe said.
Protestors say their movement, which originated in the southwest, is bound to spread nationwide, especially if the government does not quickly respond to their grievances. These include the government’s move to increase taxes on agricultural diesel, a polluting fuel, used by farmers, that has long benefited from government tax breaks. The move will directly affect the sector's production costs.
French politicians attempt to appease angry farmers ahead of European elections
Farmers are also denouncing non-compliance with a law passed in 2018 which guarantees that hikes in production costs be covered by the agrifood chain through trade negotiations.
"I sell my milk to Savencia (an agribusiness group), even though I don't even know how much milk will cost on February 1, because we didn’t reach an agreement with them in December," said Barbe, who is also a member of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA). In another example, the 2018 law required 20% of the food distributed in canteens to be organic by 2022, but the threshold is still stagnating at around 6%, according to the French newspaper Les Echos. "We can't expect farmers to shoulder the ecological transition by themselves,” said Barbe.
Farmers are also denouncing non-compliance with a law passed in 2018 which guarantees that hikes in production costs be covered by the agrifood chain through trade negotiations.
"I sell my milk to Savencia (an agribusiness group), even though I don't even know how much milk will cost on February 1, because we didn’t reach an agreement with them in December," said Barbe, who is also a member of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA). In another example, the 2018 law required 20% of the food distributed in canteens to be organic by 2022, but the threshold is still stagnating at around 6%, according to the French newspaper Les Echos. "We can't expect farmers to shoulder the ecological transition by themselves,” said Barbe.
The European Union targeted
Also jarring to farmers are the mounting environmental standards put on agricultural production. They point out that the frequent transposition of European directives make national standards even stricter than European standards. “We are not against more supervision, but we need compensation on prices,” said Barbe. This comes at the risk of losing to foreign competition. France imported more than one chicken out of two consumed in 2022 from abroad (notably, from Belgium, Poland and Brazil).
The farmers are also holding the European Union itself responsible for their situation. With a budget of €53.7 billion for the 2023-2027 mandate, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. Farmers describe it as dysfunctional. “For the first time, the CAP subsidies have still not yet been paid to all our farmers in 2023. Several farmers are having problems with their bank or their suppliers, who they weren’t able to pay as a result," said Barbe.
The far-right National Rally did not hesitate to use this anger against Brussels to launch its campaign for the European elections in June. Jordan Bardella, chief of the National Rally, spent last Sunday with workers on the wine-growing lands of Médoc.
“The European Union and the Europe of Macron (want) the death of our agriculture,” said Bardella. "French farmers are exposed to unfair competition from products from around the world which don't respect the strict standards that they (French producers) have to observe," he added.
For Purseigle, the farmers' anger will be a major theme in the coming European elections. “If they have succeeded in one area, it is in putting agricultural issues on the political agenda,” he said. The newly appointed Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also rushed to the Rhône department in east-central France on Saturday before receiving the FNSEA and the Young Farmers Union Monday in an effort to calm the discontent. “Politics is also about responding to emotions,” Purseigle noted.
As for the farmers, they have already announced they won't hesitate to block Paris and disrupt the Paris International Agricultural Show, which begins on February 24, if the government ignores their demands.
This article was translated from the original in French.
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