A breakdown in talks between the French government and farmers’ groups has raised the prospect of prolonged rural resistance on an extraordinary scale as tractors rolled into the capital region on Monday in a campaign uniting farmers from across the country. Farmers have said their goal is to block food deliveries from reaching supermarkets inside the capital city.
On Sunday, the president of the FNSEA farmers union, Arnaud Rousseau, declared his intention to escalate demonstrations in an attempt to force the government to quickly respond to their demands. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal over the weekend acquiesced to some aspects of the demands—holding off on phasing out a planned tax break on diesel fuel for agricultural equipment and implementing financial support for farmers whose animals fall ill— measures deemed insufficient by the farmers.
By Monday morning, French authorities had started putting up barriers around airports and other strategic spots around the capital. 15,000 police and paramilitary gendarmes were deployed in response to the anticipated protests, with one senior farmer representative describing the situation as a “pressure cooker ready to explode.” An attempt to block motorways and other transport junctions to prevent demonstrators from entering the city followed.
Agrarian discontent brewing in France has exploded over the past two weeks, mirroring actions seen in Germany and the Netherlands. Farmers, a traditionally conservative constituency, are leaving their lands to rally against harsh new green measures that threaten their livelihoods as well as their way of life.
Monday afternoon saw reports of gridlock around the outskirts of Paris, backed by footage on social media showing protesting taxi drivers joining farmers in helping to shut down the city in support of their protest.
French farmers have been mobilised by falling income and new EU eco-measures on rewilding and limits on the use of nitrate fertilisers, which decimates both the crops and the income of working farms.
The protests are working and well-supported, prompting President Macron to give orders to prevent tractors from disrupting Paris’s business district. Officials fear that protesters may encircle the southern commune of Rungis, which contains an enormous wholesale market that supplies some 10 million consumers. Spelling out the message that ‘farming equals food,’ this action would remind urban France of the pivotal role played by food production in modern life and quite possibly gain support for demonstrating farmers from urban dwellers. Ahead of this year’s EU elections, the Continent’s agricultural sector is in reasonable uproar as farmers rebel against government policies attempting to fulfil the much-hyped green deal. An influx of cheap Ukrainian foodstuffs is also inflaming the situation.
This week the European Commission will decide on whether to extend the agreement with the Ukrainian government to suspend tariffs on agricultural goods. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen faces a backlash from both her own EPP party and the EU’s agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, who are warning about the threats to the entire sector if the politically motivated tariff suspension continues.
