Around a hundred farmers and as many tractors are expected in the streets of Puy-en-Velay this Monday morning. Administrative simplification, single control of farms or even the denunciation of Mercosur… The demonstrators will make their numerous demands heard, ten months after a last notable mobilization.
At the beginning of last week, local union representatives were in denial when it came to discussing a possible mobilization in mid-November. Everything settled on Wednesday morning, after the national appeal launched by Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, on the France Inter set. Contacted the next day, local representatives announced: “There will be a demonstration in the streets of Puy on Monday morning (Monday November 18, Editor’s note)but I can’t tell you more,” explained Nicolas Merle, president of the FDSEA Haute-Loire, contacted by telephone.
The same demands as in January
Eager to remain discreet about the nature of their mobilization, farmers are reported to be numerous in the Altiligère prefecture. “It is not completely established, but we are going to head in particular towards the sites which house the State services”, slipped, Thursday morning, Julien Duplomb, president of Young Farmers 43. The prefecture like the Departmental Directorate of Territories (DDT) and the headquarters of the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) should be favored “targets” of demonstrators this Monday morning.
“We prefer not to say too much, because we want our actions to be as effective as possible and for our demands to finally be heard. »
Nicolas Merle (President FDSEA 43)
The nature of the mobilization therefore remains elusive. The program will have been revealed to the press early in the morning. But the nature of the demands is the same as last January. “Administrative simplification has not gone far enough, we spend so much time filling out documents. This is wasted time on the farm. Especially this year, we had a lot more work because of difficult weather,” explained the dairy farmer in the columns of L’Éveil at the beginning of November.
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Control of farms is also a factor of tension among farmers. “Of the 3,500 farms in Haute-Loire, 1,300 were inspected in 2024. The procedure itself is not a problem, but the rules are very strict, so the process is long and often difficult to validate” , certified Julien Duplomb. On this subject, Haute-Loire experimented with single control following the commitment made by the prefect Yvan Cordier. But just recently, two farmers learned that they were going to undergo a second inspection.
“The single control worked, the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, also affirmed that this would become generalized. In the end, it was all wind! »
Nicolas Merle (President FDSEA 43)
The “unfair competition” that the Mercosur agreement would bring about is also on everyone’s lips. The day promises to be busy for the farmers present who intend to make their voices heard, in the absence of major progress since their last gathering in the streets of Puy at the end of January.
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