Once again, tractors have taken over the roads of France. On Monday, May 26th, more than 200 agricultural vehicles blocked the main arteries leading into Paris, causing significant traffic disruptions. The so-called escargot (‘snail’) operations—extremely slow protest marches—brought key routes to a halt. This is not mere congestion; it is the expression of the deep frustration that thousands of farmers feel as their way of life is being continuously threatened by green policies pushed from Paris and Brussels.
This new wave of mobilizations coincides with the review of a proposed law aimed at “lifting restrictions” on the agricultural sector, including a return to certain pesticides. However, pressure from ecologists and leftist deputies, who have submitted numerous amendments, threatens to derail the reform.
Farmers see it clearly: the political class still fails to understand or address the needs of the primary sector. Worse still, the official narrative increasingly paints them as “radicalized,” “violent,” or even as being from the “far right.” What they fail to see or rather admit is that in reality, many of these protesters are in fact disillusioned left wingers, traditionally linked to trade unions and the rural world.The rise of Coordination Rurale farming union, known for its iconic yellow hats, has broken France’s largest farm union, the FNSEA’s monopoly and has channeled the discontent of a generation that feels abandoned by the system. Its leaders, such as Serge Bousquet-Cassagne and Lionel Candelon have given a voice back to small and medium-sized producers in the face of an increasingly distant political and administrative machine.
Developing an anti-system, sovereignist rhetoric opposed to ultra-liberalism, it also attacks the productivist model—which prioritizes maximizing production over other concerns—defended by the FNSEA since the end of the Second World War.
These leaders do not hide their disdain for regulations they deem absurd or disproportionate: from limits on building irrigation basins to restrictions on crop protection products.
Tensions with environmental authorities have become part of daily life. Yet reducing this struggle to an alleged “far-right radicalization” is both a flawed analysis and a politically convenient tactic to discredit the protest.
Farmers are not extremists for demanding consistency. What they denounce is nothing short of a blatant contradiction: increasingly strict environmental restrictions are imposed on them, while trade agreements flood the market with foreign products that don’t meet those standards.
Cases such as the Mercosur agreement or the mass influx of Brazilian soybeans are the clearest examples of this hypocrisy. How can local producers be forced to abandon glyphosate, while imports of food grown with substances banned in the EU are allowed?
The agricultural revolt is not only taking place in France. Just last week, more protests erupted in Brussels, the capital of the European Union. These displays of discontent reflect a broader malaise across the continent, where the rural world, traditionally resilient, conservative, and moderate, is beginning to break away from the mainstream parties. Not because it has become “radicalized,” but because it feels betrayed.
