banned from entering Paris, farmers leave frustrated

The farmers of Rural Coordination (CR), the second largest French agricultural union, finally retreated Monday afternoon. The “yellow caps” wanted to take over the Esplanade des Invalides with their tractors and trailers to meet Parisians and explain their main demands to them. They concern a reduction in standards and controls in France as well as an alignment of French regulations with those of neighboring countries in Europe, particularly in the use of treatment products.

Having not received the green light from Place Beauvau to enter the capital, several dozen demonstrators remained stuck in a “friendly” farm in Essonne. That of Kevin Brouillard, a grain grower who welcomed them this Sunday with their tractors, vans and cars, mainly from the South-West. Mobile gendarmes, equipped with four Centaure armored vehicles, surrounded them to prevent them from leaving.

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« Mr. Retailleau won, we thank him for repressing this demonstration with human and material resources disproportionate to the number we werecomments, disillusioned, Pierre-Guillaume Mercadal, breeder and spokesperson for the CR in Tarn-et-Garonne. We were treated like dogs, we were stuck in a shed without being able to move. » « A helicopter circled overhead all night like we were delinquents »adds Patrick Legras, cereal grower in the Somme, national spokesperson for the CR.

The firmness map

Unlike his predecessor Gérald Darmanin, during the agricultural demonstrations last January, Bruno Retailleau therefore preferred to play the card of firmness rather than that of dialogue. At the risk of arousing incomprehension among public opinion, which largely supports the anger of the peasants, beyond their union label. A rather unexpected position on the part of this elected LR from a rural department, Vendée, used to meetings and discussions with farmers.

Officially, the CR demonstrators were few in number, « 200 throughout France and around fifty tractors », according to the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard. Among them, around twenty farmers from the CR managed to slip through the cracks to find themselves on the human rights esplanade, at the Trocadéro, this Monday mid-morning. The souvenir photo, however, had a bitter taste. « We cannot take a step in Paris without being worried by the police, we understood what Bruno Retailleau wanted, we are going to return to our farms. I’m ashamed of being French and I’m disappointed »notes the secretary general of the CR, Christian Convers, breeder in Haute-Savoie.

We cannot take a step in Paris without being worried by the police, we understood what Bruno Retailleau wanted, we are going to return to our farms. I’m ashamed of being French and I’m disappointed

Christian Convers, general secretary of the CR and breeder in Haute-Savoie

However, the farmers of the CR will not have lost everything in this communication stunt organized in Paris. The media coverage of their gathering, although rather confidential, could be important during the campaign for the chambers of agriculture, which begins this Tuesday. The elections will take place from January 15 to 31 and their results will determine the new balance of power between agricultural unions. The CR hopes to steal around fifteen rooms from the hegemonic FNSEA-Young Farmers alliance.

For her part, Véronique Le Floc’h, the president of the CR, was in Vienne this Monday, before her meeting with Prime Minister François Bayrou, next Monday January 13. She was campaigning in one of these three French departments where the CR holds the presidency of the Chamber of Agriculture.