Anger of the farmers: with the peasants mobilized on the Sabart roundabout in Tarascon-sur-Ariège, “this is the nice step, it risks going up”

Almost a year after their last demonstrations, the farmers of Ariège, like their colleagues throughout France, have relaunched their protest actions. There were around forty of them on the Sabart roundabout in Tarascon-sur-Ariège to denounce in particular the low incomes, the complexity of regulations, and, more recently, the proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur.

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Mercosur, “the last straw”

It is an opinion shared by all the unions and a unison speech that the agricultural profession relayed this Wednesday, November 27 in Tarascon: if the EU-Mercosur free trade treaty project is at the heart of the protests, it is also and above all “one straw too many”, say the farmers. “Mercosur is a point that was added to all our other demands,” explains Sophie Alzieu, breeder and general secretary of the FNSEA09. We had a very significant mobilization at the start of the year at the national level, with promises that had been made, the results of which we are still awaiting. So as we promised, the mobilizations are back this fall.

Among the important points discussed on the Tarascon roundabout, farmers' incomes, “the lowest in France in Occitanie”, underlines Sophie Alzieu. Indeed, despite CAP aid, the income of farmers in Occitanie is one of the lowest in France “with an average of €5,000 per year per farmer”, confirmed the Chamber of Agriculture of Haute-Garonne. An element which is added to “insufficient responses from the government, and others which are slow to come”, continues the breeder: “I am thinking in particular of the requests for simplification of regulations, these are things which can be done quickly , and we realize that it is not happening, and in the meantime the situation is not improving on the ground.”

“We won’t stop until we have real answers”

On the side of young farmers, anger has given way to exasperation: “Today we want answers from the State,” says Alexis Cabanié, general secretary of the Young Farmers of Ariège. “We took a massive blow last year with the MHE, this year with the FCO, and if Mercosur is added to us on top, it is certain that we will not recover.” The farmers are categorical, “the movement will not stop until they have real answers”: “Today we are taking action at the Sabart roundabout in Tarascon, we are going to say that it is the nice step, assures Alexis Cabanié, but the more it goes, the more it will increase in intensity, and we will continue until we have our answers.”

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Even after dark, good humor remains in the roundabout, given the support the farmers received all day. “It was a lot of “We are with you”, a lot of support, reports Sébastien Durand, the president of the FDSEA09. But what also stood out was that when we touched on local consumption, what stood out, it's the wallet, and in supermarkets, it's cheaper.”

If some were still present to tow, a large part were taking the road towards Prat-Bonrepaux: from 8 p.m., farmers and tractors had an appointment for a filtering dam, led by a convoy of tractors between Montjoie- en-Couserans and the Prat roundabout.