In support of their colleagues in Paris, members of the Rural Coordination are mobilizing in Cahors

The Rural Coordination union organized a major operation in Paris. Several hundred farmers met in the capital this Monday, January 6, 2025, but they were stopped by the police. In support, members of the union Lot gathered in front of the prefecture has Cahors.

Ready to raise the tone in the Lot

The Coordination Rurale union has launched a major operation in Paris. Sunday January 5, convoys of tractors set off from several regions of France to reach Paris the next day. But the farmers were stopped before they reached the capital.

The union assures, through spokesperson Patrick Legras, that farmers were fined 135 euros because they wore the union's yellow hat.

In response, representatives of the Lot Rural Coordination urgently organized a rally in front of the Lot prefecture, Place Chapou in Cahors, this Monday, January 6 in the middle of the afternoon. The delegation of around twenty farmers attempted to meet a state representative. A request which could not be successful due to the elections to the Chamber of Agriculture organized from January 15 to 31 and the “electoral reserve period” effective since December 25.

Evoking the mobilization in Paris, Guillaume Ratz, dairy farmer in Castelnau-Montratierspeaks of “repression on members of the Rural Coordination”, “unjustified verbalizations” and “police custody because they wore a yellow cap”. “If they want repression in Paris, we can respond in the departments. We've been waiting for solutions for a year. We are not going to sit there with our arms crossed. Even in the departments, we will move around. There is general fed up. »

The union members present in Cahors express anger and the possibility of stronger actions in the department. “The farmers are in distress but it doesn't matter” expresses the only farmer in the group, referring to the words of the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard, who, recalling the Prime Minister's meeting with all the agricultural unions scheduled for Monday January 13, estimated that “the urgency they put forward to be received now, here right away” was not really justified.

“We started the mobilization in 2024 with specific demands. At the end of 2024, we have the same demands. There’s an emergency, we’ve been being led around for a year,” explains Mathieu Vinel, established in polyculture in Castelnau-Montratier.

Hervé Daraquy, cattle breeder and nut grower in Cornacevokes “the two suicides per day” in the agricultural world. “When we are told that there is no emergency… We will not die peacefully in our bed. We are the profession that works the most, that invests the most. Politicians should be ashamed. They've been talking about Mercosur for 25 years. This is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Our anger is sincere. If we earn our living, we stop acting like puppets. »

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.