Why does the CR maintain its position?
“We are offered a meeting with François Bayrou on Monday January 13. They're making fun of us, they're just buying time. There is no desire to move forward,” explained Patrick Legras, spokesperson for the union with yellow hats, on Friday.
François Bayrou must receive the organizations “in turn” in mid-January, said Matignon, citing the FNSEA, the Rural Coordination, the Peasant Confederation and the Young Farmers (JA). This is a “first meeting with organizations to discuss issues and emergencies”, underlines the government.
According to union sources, the president of the majority union FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, will be received on January 13 in the morning and a meeting at 2 p.m. has been proposed to the president of the CR, Véronique Le Floc'h.
What does the CR demand?
“What we want are measures that will allow us to continue working without it costing us more,” CR president Véronique Le Floc’h declared on Friday on RTL.
Customary of punchy actions, the CR wants to obtain guarantees from the Prime Minister for the defense of a French “agricultural exception”, focused on the protection of small farmers whom it considers crushed by free trade.
In recent days, the union was particularly expecting from the head of government a “commitment” on two points “which cost nothing”, explained Sophie Lenaerts, vice-president of the CR. On the one hand, “stopping the over-transposition of European rules in France”, that is to say “seeing only European standards apply, so that all European farmers have the same regulations”; and on the other hand, the implementation of “controls on imports rather than on farms”, she explained.
What to expect from Sunday?
On Friday, the Coordination indicated that it was maintaining its call to demonstrate “everywhere in France” from Sunday, the return day from the Christmas school holidays. The stated objective is to invite farmers to come to Paris “by car or tractor”. “The idea is to be there on Sunday afternoon to demonstrate on Monday,” Patrick Legras told AFP.
“We are setting up a system and we are expecting dozens of tractors, vans or cars this Sunday to carry out actions to control refrigerated trucks or symbolic punch operations,” commented again on Saturday to “Figaro” the bearer -spokesperson of the CR. “They will take place in Paris, around the capital and in the regions. »
“The plans are maintained as planned and kept confidential so that these actions can take place as planned,” assured Véronique Le Floc’h, president of the CR. “Several dozen tractors are already scattered, ready to position themselves,” according to her.
“There will inevitably be small blockages on the roads, slowdowns that we will try to limit as much as possible,” warns James, one of the organizers of an action in the Ile-de-France region. We leave with shelters to sleep for three days, four days, five days,” he tells RMC.
Prohibitions on demonstrations
The authorities have already banned from Sunday, 6 p.m., until Monday noon “any undeclared gathering” in the center of Paris and the Rungis market area while the agricultural union Coordination Rurale calls for demonstrations “in Paris” and “everywhere in France”. A large area of central Paris including the Élysée and the National Assembly, and an area including the Rungis market and the A6B are affected.
