There were around sixty tractors, according to our information. Around 150 farmers from the Rural Coordination (CR) were prevented from going to Paris to demonstrate this Monday, and remained mostly stuck in Orveau (Essonne). They were detained by the police, while the Minister of Agriculture warned that the capital should not be blocked “on a back-to-school day”.
The authorities “never wanted to let us enter Paris. We asked for a drop-off point for a rally but we never obtained it,” union general secretary Christian Convers told AFP from the Trocadéro, refuting any “intention to block anything”. A source from rural coordination explains to 20 Minutes that now, “the idea is no longer to go to Paris itself but to Rouen, starting tomorrow. We gradually break camp, people return to their farms.”
Against the Mercosur agreement
On the eve of the start of the electoral campaign for the chambers of agriculture, the “yellow hats” of the second agricultural union want to make their voice heard: against free trade agreements, against unfair competition, including intra -European and against controls on farms. Farmers are protesting in particular against the signing of a free trade agreement between the EU and Latin American Mercosur countries, which provides for much less strict standards on products.
While saying she understood the “concern” of the operators, the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard warned that there was no question of letting the capital be paralyzed. “No, we are not blocking, on a back-to-school day,” she warned, interviewed on TF1. The minister mentioned a mobilization of 200 farmers and around fifty tractors throughout the territory.
This mobilization comes before the professional elections, organized from January 15 to 31, which will determine the new balance of power between agricultural unions: the CR, which has gained visibility thanks to punchy actions since last winter, hopes stealing around fifteen rooms from the hegemonic FNSEA-Young Farmers alliance.
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