Anger of farmers: in Ariège, “all we ask is to be able to sell our production on our territory and to be able to make a living from it”

“We don’t need to be many, if we put three tractors side by side, they won’t move us!” If, in fact, eight tractors were at the start of the convoy at the Super U in Verniolle, in Ariège, one of the meeting points for the farmers' demonstration in Ariège, more than forty farmers had responded yesterday evening on this side of the tunnel. Little by little, the roundabout fills up with cars and participants, flags of the FDSEA, which launched the call to demonstrate, well in hand. The convoy, which will finally set off around 7:30 p.m., is planned to join another convoy from Saint-Paul-de-Jarrat and thus block the Foix tunnel until late at night.

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This Monday, November 18 evening, they had almost only one word on their lips: “Mercosur”, this trade treaty between Europe and this free trade zone in South America, which brings together Brazil, Argentina or even Venezuela. “I don't know who it's going to work out well for,” growls an organic cattle breeder in the plain. If it comes into force, it's our children who will pay the biggest price, with this meat full of hormones. which can give rise to lots of cancer!”

On the other side of the tunnel, at the Charmille roundabout in Saint-Paul-de-Jarrat, the first demonstrators arrived around 6:45 p.m. under the watchful eye of the police. They wait patiently for the first agricultural machines to show up. On site, Kévin Audouy, president of the Young Farmers of Ariège (JA09), reviews the troops. For him, “if the agreement is signed, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. We will bring an astronomical quantity of foreign meat of lower quality into our territory while, to feed the French, we have what it's necessary.”

If the atmosphere is good-natured on this cool evening, anger heats up enough to brave the cold. “With the free trade agreement, they are driving the point home. We are already having trouble selling our products in France, it will be worse with free trade agreements. We are prohibited from producing in a certain way, and we will look for other products outside which will compete with us,” says Mathieu Fournié, established since 2017 as a farmer specializing in beef.

A crisis that takes root

More broadly than the agreement with Mercosur, it is an entire profession which reveals a generalized crisis here. “We are also here because we can no longer take everything that is happening in France. We no longer make a living from our profession, and everyone is affected. The promises made to us have not been kept “, continues Mathieu, who concludes: “All we ask is to be able to sell our production on our territory and to be able to make a living from it.”

A year after last year's mobilizations, the count is not there, which Kévin Audouy regrets. “We still don't see the color of the announcements. We were promised administrative simplification, we see nothing on our farms. Only the reforms on GNR (non-road diesel, Editor's note) and the single control have been respected,” he denounces.

At 8 p.m., the convoy was ready to hit the road; on the other side, the tractors are already on the RN20, without slowing down traffic too much, encouraged by the horns of motorists passing in the opposite direction. While waiting for the departure from Saint-Paul-de-Jarrat, Miche, a 65-year-old farmer, wants to share his anger. “It's a question of sovereignty, otherwise we are heading towards a food war. A country is strong when it is autonomous. We want foreign farmers to be subject to the same standards as us.”

For him, there is no point in being more severe with French farmers and more conciliatory with those who come from outside, without forgetting the consumer who would not be protected.

Banners displayed on the tunnel

When they arrive at the tunnel, the farmers get out of their vehicles and begin to unfurl their banners. According to the police, there are nearly 90 demonstrators at the south entrance. On site, armed with orange spray paint, two farmers begin to draw in capital letters: “Agricultural resistance continues”. On the second banner: “Imported products, farmers in danger”.

A truck carrying a tractor positions itself strategically, while some demonstrators, equipped with headlamps, climb the cliff to reach the top of the entrance: once the rock has been pierced to install fixings, the banners are finally deployed on the side of the mountain.

At the same time, a flatbed truck dropped off the barbecues. On a table, half a dozen people, in the light of the torch, are busy opening baguettes to prepare sandwiches. Right next door, there is a wood cutting workshop to feed the embers of the barbecues. Despite the cold and the crisis context, the atmosphere is friendly and smiles remain. Around 11 p.m., the presidents of the FDSEA and the JA of Ariège spoke before a moment of conviviality around barbecues. The tunnel is expected to remain blocked until 6 a.m. this Tuesday, November 19.