“zero tolerance” in the event of “sustainable blockage”, warns Bruno Retailleau

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned farmers on Sunday that there would be a “zero tolerance” in case of “sustainable blockage” roads, before a new cycle of mobilization in the sector which will begin on Monday.

Bruno Retailleau received agricultural union leaders last week to “have a dialogue and also tell them the limits”he declared on the set of the Grand jury RTL/M6/Le Figaro/ Public Senate.

“Three limits”

If the right to demonstrate is guaranteed by the Constitution, the minister mentioned “three limits: no attacks on property, no attacks on people, and no encystment, no lasting blockage because otherwise there will be zero tolerance”he continued, adding that he will not hesitate “to mobilize” law enforcement to restore traffic.

To a question from a journalist who asked him if he would be “firmer” than his predecessor had been a year earlier, when he had been “tolerated” that farmers deposit slurry in front of prefectures or spray them with manure, Bruno Retailleau responded: “I didn't talk about manure, I didn't talk about symbolic action as long as there is no damage to property, harm to the person or blockage, obviously.” He said he hired the «dialogue» with trade union organizations, “precisely to be able to avoid slippage”.

“Double standards”

The minister also distinguished the mobilization of farmers from that announced by railway workers for the end of the year. “Railroad workers, some – not all – regularly take French workers hostage”he said. “Between farmers who are no longer able to live off the fruits of their labor and railway unions who want to take the French hostage, there are double standards”he continued.

Less than a year after an unprecedented movement of anger in the countryside, which led in January to blockages of sections of highways in the country, the main agricultural unions are calling on their troops to demonstrate again.

They always denounce the bureaucracy and the low income of farmers, believing that despite emergency aid and government announcements, the account is not there. They also reject outright the free trade agreement between the EU and Latin American Mercosur countries, like the government which assures them to use “all means” to block it.