A farmer and her 12-year-old daughter have died after a car driven by an illegal Armenian immigrant crashed into their roadblock, according to French media reports.
The deceased cattle farmer was named as 35-year-old Alexandra Sonac, an active participant in the FNSEA farmers’ union from the village of Saint-Felix-de-Tournegat. The fatal collision occurred at approximately 5:45 a.m. on Tuesday as the pair was mounting a blockade just south of Toulouse as part of the growing wave of agrarian protests sweeping across Europe.
Sonac’s husband, who was also in the car, is understood to be still in intensive care, with their daughter later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Police have arrested three men of Armenian extraction on manslaughter charges, with all three under deportation orders to leave France since late last year. Local prosecutor Olivier Mouysset has stated neither alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash.
The incident comes as farmers continue to stage mass demonstrations, including road blockades, around France against government plans to enforce strict green regulations on the struggling sector.
The protests have quickly been christened the gilets verts (green vests) in reference to the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests that swept the French Republic in 2018 with the deceased farmer previously appearing on local radio just last week saying that “survival is at stake” for the entire domestic agricultural sector.
The wave of agrarian discontent hitting France first originated in the southwestern department of Tarn last week and is motivated primarily by growing hardship in a farming industry declining under the pressure of Net Zero edicts, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and rising energy prices.
Thursday morning saw farmers return to the streets, particularly in the Parisian region, gaining momentum despite an attempt by French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to meet with and placate farming groups.
Government buildings were sprayed with manure in the southern department of Lot-et-Garonne Wednesday afternoon as multiple highways were blockaded by farmers who insist that they are protesting only as a “last resort” to threats to their industry.
Anger is rising over new government plans to slash carbon emissions by 22% by 2030, with many French farmers feeling their way of life is under threat from the green transition.
Events in France are just the latest in a series of pan-European agrarian rebellions against increasingly onerous Net Zero policies at an EU and national level, as farmers in Germany continue to demonstrate against government plans to suspend subsidies on diesel fuel at the behest of the ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition.
