In Cannet-des-Maures (southwest), some 300 farmers placed earth on the road and planted crosses symbolizing the death of French agriculture, which they consider threatened by the free trade agreement that the EU negotiates with the Latin American countries of Mercosur.
Near the Belgian border, farmers control heavy goods vehicles. In front of the prefecture of Vesoul (east), 180 farmers placed village signs and dumped three skips full of corn stover. Another symbolic action was planned for Monday in Strasbourg on the Europe Bridge linking France and Germany.
“Zero tolerance in case of blocking”
“We do not want a concrete blockage as we saw last year,” Pierrick Horel, president of the Young Farmers (JA), said Monday morning on RMC radio.
The impatient had brought out the tractors on Sunday, going in a procession near the Villacoublay air base, near Paris, from where Emmanuel Macron flew for the G20 in Rio, Brazil. On Sunday, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned that there would be “zero tolerance” in the event of “sustainable blockage” of the roads.
Less than a year after a vast movement of anger in the countryside, which resulted in January in blockages of sections of highways in the country, the agricultural unions are once again calling on their troops to demonstrate but in dispersed order, approaching their professional elections which will be held in January.
Complex standards and insufficient income
Hit by poor harvests and emerging animal diseases, they believe they have still not reaped the fruits of last winter’s anger. And they consider the standards as complex as ever, and the income insufficient.
If taxes on agricultural fuel had been one of the drivers of mobilization last year, it is the outcome of the EU’s proposed free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay). , Paraguay, Bolivia) which could set things on fire this year.
Fear of unfair competition
Despite opposition from both the political class and French agricultural stakeholders, the EU seems determined to sign this agreement by the end of the year, which will notably allow Latin American countries to sell more beef, chicken or sugar without customs duties in Europe. Several European countries, including Spain and Germany, want the agreement concluded, which would promote the export of cars, machinery or pharmaceutical products from the EU.
But French farmers fear unfair competition from products not subject to the strict environmental and health standards in force in Europe. This is why the FNSEA and its ally JA chose to relaunch the mobilization on Monday and Tuesday, the dates of a G20 summit in Brazil.
Rejection from the Italian Minister of Agriculture
In Buenos Aires, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that France would not “sign as is” the free trade treaty. A position shared by the Italian Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida. He spoke out on Monday against the proposed free trade agreement in its current form, demanding that Mercosur farmers be subject to the same “obligations” as those in the EU.
“We must verify in advance the respect by the Mercosur countries of the same obligations that we impose on our farmers in terms of respect for workers’ rights and the environment,” justified this minister who is a member of Fratelli d’Italia, the party of far right led by Giorgia Meloni of whom he is close.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, head of the conservative Forza Italia party, a member of the ruling coalition, was more open.
The main organizations representing the agricultural sector of the peninsula have spoken out against this project.
