In the midst of a standoff over the negotiations between the European Union and Mercosur, the FNSEA is trying to reassure. The president of the union Arnaud Rousseau thus assured Sunday that the new mobilization of farmers, at the call of several unions in the profession, was not aimed at “blocking the French”.
The objective of this mobilization, which began on Sunday before numerous actions planned for Monday, is not to “annoy” the French, but “to send them the message that the situation that agriculture is experiencing today is an emergency situation, dramatic in certain places,” underlined the president of the first agricultural union on BFMTV.
Unions not all on the same line
Less than a year after a wave of anger in the countryside, which resulted in January 2024 in blockages of sections of highways in the country, the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA) and its ally Young Farmers ( JA) have chosen to relaunch the movement. Some 82 actions were recorded across France until Tuesday, according to Arnaud Rousseau, notably in front of prefectures or on roundabouts called “roundabouts of Europe”.
“If others have other modes of action, want to use violence or, as I have heard, want […] starving Toulouse is not our mode of action,” he also underlined, in reference to comments from the Rural Coordination.
Farmers still denounce excessive bureaucracy and low incomes, but are also exasperated by poor harvests, losses linked to emerging animal diseases and the prospect of signing the free trade agreement with the countries Latin American countries of Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay).
Threat of mobilization “in January”
The movement should continue, with small-scale demonstrations, on other themes (against “constraints”, for better sales prices) and in other symbolic places (administrations, supermarkets) until mid-December.
“I do not want to take the Christmas period hostage, which is a period of consumption of our products,” Arnaud Rousseau had already clarified on Wednesday, adding that the mobilization could resume “in January” if they did not obtain satisfaction.
