Faced with the silence of the government in the face of their demands and their cash flow problems, the farmers renewed their movement, which began last January. After a first action on Monday by the FDSEA and the Young Farmers 08, which was poorly attended, it was the Rural Coordination which really demonstrated the anger of the agricultural world by blocking, from Tuesday, the entrance to the Ardennes Prefecture. No less than 60 tonnes of manure and 40 tonnes of tires were dumped in front of the gates of the building, the gates of which were also padlocked.
For Jean-Baptiste Bourin, President of the Rural Coordination of the Ardennes, only this type of action will allow them to be heard, not by the prefect, but by the government. This Wednesday, however, on the second day of the blockade, the trade unionist felt that means would be implemented to make them leave, as had already been the case in the south of France.
Jean-Baptiste Bourin, at the microphone of Radio 8
It is therefore no surprise that the demonstrators saw disembarked, at nightfall, a squadron of 80 CRS, “in addition to the local forces of the national police and the departmental gendarmerie group” specifies the press release from Alain Bucquet. The farmers eventually broke camp, without putting up any resistance. The Prefect also mobilized the services of the town of Charleville-Mézières to clean the site, which should be accessible to the public again today.
Simplification of regulations, cash flow aid, Mercosur treaty, expectations are so great that farmers have not said their last word. It must be said that the unease is deep and the operation of farms is increasingly difficult. In the Ardennes, there are 3,000 farms, 2,600 breeders and more than 50% of them are now struggling to make ends meet..
