The farmers of Rural Coordination, the second French agricultural union, are trying this Monday, January 6 to “go up to Paris” to express their discontent, still denouncing the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, just before the elections to the chambers of agriculture, where they hope to gain influence. On Sunday, a few convoys of tractors set off from different regions of France, but none returned to the capital, which the last vacationers were leaving before the start of the school year this Monday morning.
“Our tractors have left, but in the places where they are grouped together, the gendarmes prevent them from moving,” declared Sunday evening the general secretary of the movement, Christian Convers. The latter was himself briefly arrested by the police in Paris late Sunday afternoon, when he arrived – by car – to participate in a symbolic gathering at Place du Brazil, in protest against the recent trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay). This agreement is accused by French farmers of favoring the import of low-cost products with lower environmental standards than those imposed on them.
“They released me, telling me that I had to leave Paris, which would mean that we would no longer even be allowed to walk on the sidewalk in Paris?” he noted, before adding: “We are not coming to block Paris, moreover we have agreed not to return to the capital on Sunday evening, returning from vacation, we are coming by tractor to express our concerns, and we need a base where we regroup.” Christian Convers also warned: “If no base is granted to us by the authorities, this will turn into a confrontation that we do not want.”
The Paris police headquarters has banned undeclared gatherings from Sunday 6 p.m. to Monday 12 p.m. in a large area of central Paris, including in particular Matignon and the Ministry of Agriculture, “considering the calls to demonstrate on January 5, 2025 launched by an agricultural union with a view to “blocking the capital””. The Val-de-Marne prefecture did the same around the Rungis market and on the A6 motorway. Before converging on Paris this Monday morning, farmers from all over Normandy must meet in Heudebouville on the edge of the A13, between Vernon and Rouen, said Damien Cornier of Rural Coordination in Normandy. Other gathering places are planned in the north, west and south of the capital.
The ultra-dominant FNSEA
“We are asking to have the same production standards as other countries, we are asking for reductions in controls on farms and increases in controls in supermarkets where we find products that do not meet our standards,” explained Damien Cornier, who grows cereals and beets in Andelys (Eure). “We found sugar and flour from Ukraine in supermarketswhile the manufacturer who buys sugar beets from us is asking us to reduce our production volumes by 15% this year, and prices per tonne will increase to 23 euros in 2025 compared to 36-38 euros in 2024,” he added.
The actions of the CR, which give it media and union visibility, come on the eve of the launch of the campaign for the elections to the chambers of agriculture. These elections, organized from January 15 to 31, will determine the new balance of power between agricultural unions, among which the FNSEA is ultra-dominant according to the last election of 2019.
The four main unions, including the Rural Coordination, must be received at Matignon on January 13. “Guaranteeing decent remuneration is the mother of battles”, assured the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, in the JDD. Regarding the EU-Mercosur agreement, she assured that the process was “far from finished” and that the government “was going to fight like crazy against this bad agreement”. Guest of the TF1 morning show this Monday, January 6, the Minister of Agriculture nevertheless condemned the attempts to block Paris and refused to receive farmers before next week. “I think that the urgency they are putting forward to be received now, here, right away, is not really justified,” she affirmed, specifying all the same that “Their concern is perfectly understandable.”
