Farmers are expected to converge on Paris this Sunday, at the call of Rural Coordination. Despite this announcement, the second French agricultural union remains discreet about the progress of the operation.
Rural Coordination (CR), the second French agricultural union, remained discreet this Sunday January 5 on the modalities of the mobilization of angry farmers for which it is calling from Sunday, around and in the capital.
“Voluntarily, we have divided the organization of this day and the days to come between only five people,” said the president of the movement Véronique Le Floc’h on RMC on Sunday.
“Everyone is responsible for where the farmers gather, whether they are in a car or a tractor, and then we will see what happens,” she added.
Ban on entering Paris
“A priori, we are prohibited from entering Paris” on Sunday evening, “we obey, we will get in place during the night”, for his part declared to AFP Christian Convers, general secretary of the organization.
Customary of punchy actions, the CR wishes to obtain guarantees from the Prime Minister for the defense of agriculture focused on the protection of small farmers whom it considers crushed by free trade.
The demonstration planned for Monday January 6 comes on the eve of the official launch of the campaign for the elections to the chambers of agriculture, which begins on January 7.
These elections, organized from January 15 to 31, will determine the new balance of power between agricultural unions, among which the FNSEA is currently ultra dominant according to the results of the last election of 2019. The four main unions must be received in Matignon on January 13.
“Since Covid, we have accumulated, we have had a series of different health, economic, geopolitical and climatic crises, we are facing inflation in our production costs and the prices paid to our producers are not keeping up, and we have many farmers in distress,” declared Véronique le Floc’h on RMC.
Undeclared gatherings prohibited
According to her, 30,000 farms out of 400,000 have received aid over the past year, to the tune of 9,000 euros. “30,000 farms when the ministry itself says that more than 150,000 farms are in financial distress,” she added. “We wait, we wait, but our patience has limits,” she continued, “agriculture is dying.”
On Saturday, the Paris police headquarters and the Val-de-Marne prefecture banned undeclared gatherings from Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Monday 12:00 p.m. “considering the calls to demonstrate on January 5, 2025 launched by an agricultural union with a view to 'blocking the capital' and to block the Rungis market of national interest”.
Rural Coordination has “carried out all requests in a compliant manner”, assures Véronique le Floc’h.
