Less than a year after an unprecedented movement of anger in the countryside, the main agricultural unions called on their troops to demonstrate again starting this Monday. At issue: the potential signing during the G20 in Brazil of the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur.
While the first rallies were held on Sunday, this Monday will mark the real start of the mobilization of the agricultural sector. Hit by poor harvests and the emergence of animal diseases, farmers deplore the delay in the implementation of some of the 70 commitments made last winter by the previous government to appease their anger. They are also mobilizing against the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, which the European Commission wants to sign before the end of the year.
French agricultural unions are categorically opposed to this text negotiated for decades between the EU and five South American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia). They fear paying the price for competition that they consider unfair, to the detriment of European food sovereignty. To oppose it, “nearly 82 actions have been identified and will take shape from this afternoon and will continue tomorrow, and until Tuesday,” declared Sunday the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau. Here are the measures announced by the Federations.
Filter dams put in place
If the first tractors moved to Yvelines at the Vélizy-Villacoublay air base, not without disrupting traffic on the RN 118, most movements will take place from this Monday throughout the territory. Roads will thus be blocked from 8 a.m. in Vaucluse or in Landes, but the precise locations have not been communicated to preserve the effect of surprise. Farmers from Var will also meet this Monday morning from 8 a.m. in different places in the department, to converge on the motorway roundabout at Cannet-des-Maures which they intend to block.
In the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, the FDSEA and the JA met with farmers at 6 p.m. at the Digne-les-Bains star roundabout. In Haute-Garonne, farmers intend to block foreign trucks on strategic routes. Filter dams are expected in several municipalities in Isère on Monday between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. In the Pyrénées-Orientales, as during last winter's mobilization, Rural Coordination is calling for blockages on the A9 motorway on Tuesday at the Boulou toll, on the Spanish border.
In the Ardennes, the FDSEA and the Young Farmers plan to install filter dams on the border with Belgium from 10 a.m. They plan to check trucks entering France to flush out possible products that do not comply with European standards. The Lot-et-Garonne Rural Coordination, at the origin of the convoy of dozens of tractors from the southwest to the Rungis market at the end of January, threatens to block rail freight from Wednesday November 20, if there is no no “strong and immediate decision from the State” until then.
In Dordogne, tractors will converge towards Périgueux, in front of the department prefecture. In the Loire, several convoys are on the program: in Roanne to the sub-prefecture on Monday, in Montbrison to the sub-prefecture the next day and in Saint-Étienne to the prefecture on Wednesday. In Saône-et-Loire, a mobilization will take place in Mâcon, on the Europe roundabout, from 7 p.m. In Aube, a blocking action will take place in Troyes, on the Europe roundabout, this Monday at 6:30 p.m. In the Marne, tractors will converge towards Châlons-en-Champagne, and the first road slowdowns are expected at 2 p.m. this Monday.
The FDSEA of Seine-Maritime announced a large-scale demonstration this Monday in Le Havre, where tensions had already been numerous during the agricultural movement last winter. In Deux-Sèvres, mobilized farmers are planning rallies this Monday in Niort and Echiré and a snail operation on Tuesday, according to the Nouvelle République. In Tarn, two large roundabouts in Castres and Albi are already targeted this Monday and Tuesday. In the Lot, rallies in front of the prefecture and sub-prefectures are planned for this Monday in Figeac, Gourdon and Cahors.
In Mayenne, farmers will block the Europe Bridge in Laval from 3:30 p.m. “A fire of anger will be lit in the evening,” they also announce. Actions are also planned this Monday in Le Mans, in Sarthe. For the moment, the organizers do not plan to block the roads. On the Marseille side, the unions believe “not having been heard, not having had the answers to the questions asked” and are announcing a mobilization at the end of the year to “move the government”, declared Laurent Israélian, general secretary of the FNSEA of Bouches-du-Rhône.
“Surprise” mobilizations
In other departments, farmers do not want to reveal what form their mobilization will take this Monday. In Doubs and the Territoire de Belfort, the unions remain very evasive. Other organizations are carrying out their own actions, without completely aligning themselves with the FNSEA/JA calendar, while the professional agricultural elections are held in January.
The Rural Coordination, the second representative union, promises “an agricultural revolt” from November 19. The minority union Confédération paysanne, for its part, already participated last Wednesday in several anti-Mercosur demonstrations, alone or with other organizations: in the European district of Brussels, in front of the French Ministry of the Economy in Paris and in Aveyron. .
