Farmer protests in Paris
Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe with a different scenario. Hundreds of farmers are against the EU-Mercosur agreement.
Hundreds of farmers and about 100 tractors got a puncture today the locks authorities and positioned themselves alongside the symbolic Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe in Paris, contra the European Union agreement (UE) with the Mercosur.
A Porte d’Auteuil is another place where rural workers gather, organized by the main unions in the sector since Wednesday night, which fear the invasion of Europe by competitive products with less production control from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay (Mercosur).
“We can’t even pay ourselves properly own. I only earn 500 euros a month, minus the 100 euros I have to pay on the mortgage… so, with the threat of cattle slaughter and Mercosur, We don’t know how we’re going to get along“, laments the young cattle farmer Mathieu Grandet, outside Parliament.
Demonstrators are also protesting the management of the contagious nodular dermatosis crisis (DNC), a viral disease that mainly affects cattle and ruminant species, transmitted by insects.
In addition to the French capital, farmers also carried out actions in other areas of the country, for example around Bordeaux (southwest), with a blockade, since Wednesday, of a fuel depot in Bassens.
It’s the “anger” of farmers arriving in the center of Paris, as described by .
The President of Parliament, Yaël Braun-Pivet, was booed as she left the Bourbon Palace, and achieved by a projectile.
The French Government has already reacted. The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, admitted that there are legitimate concerns and demands from farmers – from whom she asked for a sense of responsibility and dialogue.
Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon was tougher: the French executive “will not allow these illegal actions.” The presence of tractors in historic places is “unacceptable”.
The leaders of the Rural Coordination, as well as those of the National Federation of Agricultural Producers’ Unions (FNSEA), among other organizations, met on Monday and Tuesday with the French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, who, together with the entire government, tried to contain the protests, whose preparation had been growing.
On Wednesday, there was an order from the French police leadership to prohibit tractors from accessing certain sensitive areas of Paris, including the Élysée Palace, the Prime Minister’s official residence in Matignon, the Parliament, the Ministries of Agriculture and Ecological Transition and the Rungis market, among others.
In December, especially in the run-up to Christmas, there were motorway and road closuresin the south of France, due to the contingency plan to combat DNC, as several unions reject the protocol decided by the government that requires the slaughter of all animals on a livestock farm when a case of that disease is detected.
On December 18, during the European Council meeting in Brussels, a similar but larger protest, with more than 5,000 farmers and around 500 tractors, led to the signing of the EU-Mercosur agreement.
The president of the European Commission, German Ursula von der Leyen, canceled the trip and formalization of the understanding, scheduled for two days later, in Iguaçu.
Meanwhile, a similar ceremony was scheduled for next Monday, as representatives of the most reluctant Italy, as well as France and Poland, will have lowered their initial reservations about the agreement.
