“Death is in the meadow”: French farmers demonstrate this Monday against the EU-Mercosur agreement (videos)

A small coffin bears the inscription “death is in the meadow”, banners in the colors of the FNSEA proclaim “Stop promises, make way for actions” or “Agri act 2: we are back”.

In Avignon (Vaucluse), around a hundred farmers, according to the police, deployed on paths bordering the Rhône, to stage a protest against the entry of foreign agricultural products. “Our end will be your hunger,” the union members proclaimed.

Near the Belgian borderfarmers control heavy goods vehicles. In front of the Vesoul prefecture, 180 farmers placed village signs and dumped three skips full of corn stover. Gatherings are underway in Angoulême (Charente), and snail operations in Deux-Sèvres.

Some “85 demonstration points are getting underway, we do not want a concrete blockage as we saw last year”, underlined Monday on RMC Pierrick Horel, the president of the Young Farmers.

The impatient had brought out the tractors on Sunday, going in a procession near the Villacoublay air base, near Paris, from where Emmanuel Macron flew for the G20 in Rio, Brazil. “Macron, if you go to Rio, don’t forget your hillbillies,” proclaimed a banner hung on a bridge.

The actions are intended above all to be symbolic, with the majority alliance wanting to alert the public authorities but “not to annoy the French”: “What we want is to express across the entire territory this agricultural distress and this need to refix the cap”, underlined Mr. Horel.

On Sunday, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned farmers that there would be “zero tolerance” in the event of a “sustainable blockage” of the roads.

Varied modes of action

Less than a year after a large-scale movement which resulted in blockages of sections of highways, agricultural unions are once again calling for demonstrations, but in dispersed order, in the run-up to their professional elections next January.

Weakened by the worst wheat harvest in 40 years and emerging animal diseases, farmers believe they have not reaped the benefits of last winter’s anger: the implementation of the 70 commitments then made by the Attal government was slowed down by the dissolution of the National Assembly.

And they consider the standards as complex as ever and the income insufficient.

If taxes on agricultural fuel (GNR) or the European Green Deal had been the catalyst for mobilization last year, this time it is the expected outcome of the proposed free trade agreement with countries of Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) which ignites the countryside.

Despite opposition from the French political class and agricultural stakeholders, the European Commission, pushed by countries like Germany and Spain, seems determined to sign this pact by the end of the year which will allow Latin American countries to sell more beef, chicken or sugar without customs duties.

“We will continue to oppose” the agreement, assured Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, traveling to Argentina before the G20, seeking to “reassure farmers”.

Mercosur: Wallonia will not agree as it stands, reaffirms Adrien Dolimont

Monday on France Bleu Besançon, the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard said she “understands the anger” of farmers, while emphasizing that the draft budget contained “nearly 300 million in social and tax relief”.

Recognizing progress such as state-guaranteed loans, the FNSEA announces a mobilization until mid-December, with mainly symbolic actions, like the one planned for Monday afternoon in Strasbourg on the Europe Bridge linking France and the Germany.

“If others have other modes of action, want to use violence or, as I have heard, want […] starving Toulouse is not our mode of action,” warned FNSEA boss Arnaud Rousseau on Sunday on BFMTV, distinguishing himself from certain leaders of Rural Coordination (CR, 2nd agricultural union).

The CR chose to wait until its congress was held (Tuesday and Wednesday) to amplify its mobilization. She promises “an agricultural revolt” with a “blockade of food freight” from Wednesday in the South-West if “no progress” is noted on the Mercosur file.

Mercosur: a booster shot for farmers in Brussels, before much more serious actions? “A famous warning” (video)