Farmers across France demonstrated on Monday to protest against the EU-Mercosur agreement. In Nîmes, around a hundred people expressed their dissatisfaction in front of the Auchan supply center, then at the Nîmes-Ouest motorway exit.
Around a hundred farmers met around 5 p.m. in front of the supply center of the Auchan supermarket brand located in Saint-Césaire. Blocking the exits, a delegation of demonstrators was received to visit the warehouses. Going out half an hour later, the farmer representatives noted the low presence of local wines: “ There are 90% French wines, but we drop to 15% for bulk wine. The big problem is that apart from a palette of Listel, there is no Gard wine. We gave them a very short time to contact us, to make them understand that French wine is good, but we are still in the Gard. They know very well that the action will last several weeks and that if nothing is done and we do not have signatures, our next visit will be different from today » underlines Fabien Chaussinand, the secretary of young farmers in Gard.
The demonstrators then headed towards the Delta kilometer roundabout, the usual location for large farmer demonstrations. They set up there to grill sausages, but also to filter heavy goods vehicles leaving the Nîmes-Ouest toll booth. A good fifteen trucks were checked. A semi-trailer, registered in Var, saw part of its cargo unloaded. This concerned fruits and vegetables from Spain or Italy.
Demonstrators in front of the Auchan supply center. • Photo: Norman Jardin.
« We are not thugs, we only want to save our profession »
Noa Saignol (general secretary of young farmers in Gard)
« We are fed up with empty words. We want things to change. We are made promises, but we do not see the color. We are going to visit different purchasing centers and those who are not playing the game. This evening, we are advocating wisdom. We are not thugs, we only want to save our profession. We spent ten days on the highway, but all we got was empty words. We betrayed our trust » explains Noa Saignol, general secretary of young farmers in Gard. In the evening, demonstrators planned operations targeting radars and promised other actions in the coming weeks.
