Believing that the government had responded to its demands, the Rural Coordination announced the end of the blockade of the commercial port of Bordeaux.
The Rural Coordination (CR), the main union remaining mobilized on the ground, announced Thursday evening that it would lift its blockade of the commercial port of Bordeaux on Friday morning, believing that the Prime Minister had responded to its demands on European standards. “We asked Mr. Barnier to commit to overtransposition [des règles européennes]he responds openly to what he was asked, he said [mercredi devant le Sénat, ndlr]: the farmers are right, there are too many standards”, declared José Pérez, co-president of CR47, to AFP.
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“I want to say about simplification, farmers are right to ask that we look at the European provisions one by one and their application here,” the head of government declared Wednesday afternoon before the Senate. “We are people of our word, we decided to break camp,” added José Pérez, explaining that “in the heat of the moment”, the Prime Minister’s declarations had initially escaped his troops.
Last major action
The Gironde prefecture indicated for its part that “exchanges are continuing between state services and the demonstrators to resolve this situation as quickly as possible”. The blockade of the Bordeaux port, seventh in the country for merchandise traffic, was the last major action carried out by farmers this week.
“I think that what is authorized in Europe should also be authorized in France, what is prohibited in Europe must also be authorized in France”, declared during the day the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, while traveling in Pas-de-Calais.
Among the demands of farmers, back on the roads since Sunday, is the reauthorization of a neurotoxic insecticide (acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid) banned in France, but still authorized elsewhere in the EU, demanded by sugar beet producers and hazelnuts. The minister also promised “announcements on simplification in the coming days”.
For Lucie Delbarre, president of the FDSEA of Pas-de-Calais, this trip is not likely to calm the discontent: “We have small measures arriving, but what we want is the all of our demands, (…) that we can live from our profession serenely”. Around the village of La Couture, where the minister visited an endive farm, the panels were crossed out with stickers “Paraguay”, “Brazil” or “Argentina”, in reference to the free trade agreement between EU and Mercosur countries which both farmers and the French political class are opposed to.
“No encystment”
Annie Genevard was making her first field trip since the return of agricultural demonstrations this week, especially marked by the actions of the “yellow caps” of the Rural Coordination. In Bordeaux, a farmer participating in the port blockade deplored a “dispersed order” mobilization on Thursday. “Colleagues are resigned, we should all make common cause [entre syndicats]it's a shame. We have to burn tires to get anyone interested in us.”
The port authorities expressed their “incomprehension” regarding this action, affirming that “Bordeaux is a cereal export port serving the regional agricultural sector” and that it “does not import cereals”, CR47 stating the opposite.
Thursday afternoon, the authorities identified 651 farmers and 242 machines mobilized in 13 departments. Large distribution purchasing centers were again targeted in Charente, Corrèze, Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne. On Europe1-CNews, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau repeated Thursday that there were “red lines” not to be crossed: “no encystment”, “no blockage”.
In Lille, members of the CR parked their tractors Thursday afternoon in front of the Hauts-de-France Regional Council, where a delegation was received by the office of its president Xavier Bertrand. The president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, announced that the next demonstrations led by its members would take place next week, “Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday”. He is expected this Friday morning at the Congress of French Vegetable Producers in Agen… historic stronghold of Rural Coordination.
