Farmers express their anger in France this Wednesday, December 11, 2024. The announcement on Friday in Montevideo, in the presence of Ursula von der Leyen, of the finalization of the free trade agreement between the European Union and four Mercosur countries ( Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), has relaunched a wave of protests in the French and European agricultural world. He fears being faced with South American competition at cut prices, particularly in the meat market.
France is the leader of the European countries opposed to this agreement, which, to enter into force; must be ratified by at least 15 of the 27 EU member states, representing at least 65% of its population.
Slurry in the city center of Dijon, the A16 motorway blocked, parliamentary offices walled up… Panorama of the mobilizations this Wednesday.
Read also: Mercosur: “This agreement is unacceptable as it stands” for MEP Valérie Hayer
Blocking of the center of Dijon
Nearly 200 tractors blocked the center of Dijon on Wednesday midday, dumping manure and used tires in protest against the agreement between the EU and Mercosur and government censorship.
“Peasants without wheat”, “Let’s not import what has been banned in France”, was it written on signs hung on the grilles of tractors parked opposite the Burgundy-Franche-Comté Regional Council, at the Maison de l'Europe and near the prefecture.
In the presence of a large police force, skips loaded with old tires, straw and slurry dumped their load in front of the House of Europe, with farmers promising to do the same in front of the regional and state headquarters. .
More than 30 parliamentary offices degraded in one week
In one week, more than 30 deputies saw their parliamentary permanence in the regions degraded by farmers who were protesting against the consequences of government censorship, the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet lamented this Wednesday. “Distress and concerns, however legitimate they may be, cannot be expressed through intimidation of democratically elected representatives,” she said in a press release, which “strongly condemns” these degradations.
Walled, painted or covered with manure or waste: these protest actions, most often claimed by the agricultural union FNSEA, mainly targeted deputies from the New Popular Front (NFP) and the National Rally (RN), who voted government censorship last week.
Angry farmers consider that censorship has suspended the realization of the promises made by the deposed government to respond to the agricultural crisis. On the left, this type of action particularly targeted the former socialist president François Hollande, whose office was walled up in Tulle (Corrèze), and the leader of the socialist parliamentary group Boris Vallaud. Posters Wanted Nadine Lechon have also been stuck in Périgueux, named after the RN deputy for Dordogne, who has not yet opened a parliamentary office since her election.
A motorway blocked near the Channel tunnel
Farmers and a hundred tractors block a French highway on Wednesday, near the Channel Tunnel, to protest against the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement, noted a correspondent from theAFP.
This action, however, did not “no impact on cross-Channel platforms”, that is to say the tunnel under the Channel and the port of Calais, according to the prefecture questioned by theAFP. Diversions have been put in place, she said.
The symbolic blockage of the A16, which started at the end of the morning, must last “until 4 p.m. to show our determination” and the capacity of farmers to ” to block “ further the French and European economy “if necessary”, said Antoine Peenaert, from the FDSEA union.
A toll blocked in Toulouse
Farmers from the Lot-et-Garonne Rural Coordinations blocked part of the Toulouse-North toll, on the A62, this Wednesday morning. At least three lanes were blocked in the Montauban-Agen direction at 7:30 a.m., according to our colleagues from the Dispatch from the South who reported some scuffles between farmers and police.
The demonstrators then went to a hypermarket in Fenouillet, to remove imported products from the shelves according to France 3 Occitanie .
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