The unions have been harping on it for weeks, the agricultural protest movement resumes. And it was this Monday, November 18 that the Young Farmers and the FDSEA decided to start the movement, while Europe is negotiating the last lines of the free trade treaty with the Latin American countries of Mercosur. Rural Coordination begins Tuesday, November 19, throughout the country.
In Périgueux, farmers planned to converge on the prefecture in Périgueux to show their dissatisfaction with this free trade agreement, but also to say that the promises made after last winter's movement were not kept by those in power. If the unions are mobilizing on different days, it is because we are in the middle of the campaign for the elections to the Chamber of Agriculture. And the Dordogne is hotly contested, between the CR and the FDSEA.
“Fires of anger” from the FDSEA and the JA on Monday
The FDSEA and the JA plan to have convoys of tractors converge towards Périgueux on Monday from the beginning of the afternoonfor a meeting at the Yves Guéna roundabout around 5:30 p.m. Before that, there will be snail operations with several starting points, the Cerf roundabout, the Leclerc de Trélissac, Aquacap in Périgueux, the Auchan store in Marsac, and the Le 7 restaurant in Saint-Laurent-sur-Manoire . School buses have already planned to avoid the area all day, as well as Tuesday. The farmers have planned a giant barbecue, before lighting “fires of anger” at the roundabout, near the prefecture, for “light the prefectures with the fire of our anger”.
The fire will be lit around 7:45 p.m., but before then, the tractors will be positioned on this central axis in Périgueux for filtering with the distribution of leaflets to raise awareness of the reasons for their opposition to the signing of Mercosur. As for the future, nothing has been announced at the moment, but the union is carefully scrutinizing the discussions which begin this Monday at the G20 which is taking place in Brazil, where the free trade agreement could be ratified.
Rural Coordination mobilizes on Tuesday
The same day, actions will take place in almost all departments of France, in front of the prefectures or “in the squares of Europe”. For the moment the union is not communicating on other actions during the week. In any case no question for the moment of occupying roundabouts and disrupt traffic.
Rural Coordination 24 is launching an appeal for the next day, the farmers will meet around 10 a.m. at the prefecture. Convoys of tractors will leave the same morning from several assembly points, in Creysse, Bassillac and Ribérac. There could be slowdowns on the RN 21 for example with vehicles leaving from Bergeracois.
When to know if the movement will lastand continue like last winter, it is impossible to answer this question at the moment. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned on Sunday on M6 that there would be a “zero tolerance” in the event of “sustainable blockage” of roads.
If the right to demonstrate is guaranteed by the Constitution, the minister mentioned “three limits: no damage to property, no damage to people, and no encystment, no lasting blockage because otherwise there will be zero tolerance”adding that he will not hesitate “to mobilize” law enforcement to restore traffic.
