the essential
The farmers were faithful to the “bin festival” this Tuesday evening, November 26. More than 200 tractors and 600 of them converged on Montauban, the prefectural town of Tarn-et-Garonne. A mobilization, at the call of the FDSEA and the JA, which gives the measure of the malaise of an entire profession.
“After promises, we want actions.” On the signs, the banners and in the mouths, it was the leitmotif of the angry farmers who demonstrated this Tuesday, November 26 at the end of the evening and until 12:45 a.m. in the streets of Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) , epicenter of this second movement of the FDSEA and the JA after that orchestrated last week by these same two unions on a roundabout in Albasud. A demonstration of rare scale with some 236 tractors involved and 600 demonstrators according to union figures (150 tractors and 450 people for the Prefecture).
“A historic event”
“It's historic in Montauban, but we would have done without it, commented Jean-Baptiste Gibert, the former president of JA 82. This provides proof of the malaise of the profession. We have no income and we can no longer make a living from our profession.”
Not far from there, Joël, a beef cattle breeder in Lafitte, listed his worries. “We have a lot of checks that are useless, there is no vaccine for MHE and we have a terrible shortfall. Today, everyone responded, especially young people. This makes me warm to the heart…”
From the end of the afternoon, the tractors began to turn from Valence-d'Agen to reach the A 62 motorway via Castelsarrasin in snail operation, while around fifty tractors from the east of department had arranged to meet in Caussade to reach the Cité d'Ingres in a long procession with the appearance of gastropods, also on the A 20.
At the same time, a large force of law enforcement (180 elements including 120 in Montauban), gendarmes and national and municipal police officers was there to prepare for any eventuality. The Prefecture of Tarn-et-Garonne, targeted in the first place, had taken on the appearance of an entrenched camp with concrete blocks as ramparts.
A good hour and a half late than planned, the demonstrators stopped as planned at the Marcel-Unal city, where the Chamber of Agriculture and the offices of the FDSEA and Young Farmers are located.
The dumpster festival has started
Two construction radars removed from the Caylus and Caussade sector were planted on the roundabout near the Chamber of Agriculture. A restorative meal later, the procession went to the administrative city, rue Edouard-Forestié, where the dumpster festival really began.
This stampede then spread through the streets of the city center to stop at the Departmental Directorate of Territories (DDT), the usual victim of agricultural movements, before ending this monster demonstration in front of the Prefecture, point of organ of this surge. As midnight approached, the Prefect, Vincent Roberti, met a delegation of representatives of the FDSEA and the JA.
We do not know if this show of force will advance their demands, but the two unions succeeded in their attempt with a massive mobilization of all the farmers in the department.
