PARIS, Dec 19 (Reuters) – The French government called on Friday for a Christmas truce with protesting farmers, warning against further lockdowns over the holiday season, a move the country’s main union said depended on the prime minister’s response to their demands.
Farmers have been blocking roads, dumping manure and holding demonstrations in France for more than a week to protest the government’s management of cattle lumpy skin disease and a trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur.
Farmers gathered with tractors early on Friday outside President Emmanuel Macron’s residence in the seaside resort of Le Touquet in northern France, placing a coffin with the words ‘RIP Agri’ and ‘Mercosur No’.
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Meanwhile, in the southern French city of Avignon, farmers threw potatoes at public buildings.
Protesters argue that the government’s policy of culling an entire herd when lumpy skin disease is detected is excessive and cruel. They also claim that the agreement between the EU and Mercosur, whose signature was postponed until January, would allow the massive import of products that do not meet French standards.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is holding meetings with the main agricultural unions. The head of the FNSEA, the largest in the country, said that Lecornu had committed to sending a letter by the end of the afternoon with answers to a series of agricultural questions.
‘This letter will be decisive,’ FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau told reporters, adding that the union would then make a decision on suspending the protests.
Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon stated on RTL radio that the government would no longer tolerate lockdowns and would do ‘everything necessary’ to avoid them.
(Reportagem by Sybille de La Hamaide and Gus Trompiz)
